Oxycontin nursing implication

Sir Jack Beastman, accompanied by his companions Soup and Lightning, couldn’t help but smirk with a mix of excitement and nervousness. He managed to control his expression just before the impressive royal guards each pushed open their part of the double doors.
It did not escape Jack's notice that the guards opened the inward-swinging double doors with grace, practiced motion, and speed, transforming them into a single grand and imposing mechanism. This observation intrigued Jack, who was always too curious and never satisfied. He could see the attention and seriousness the guards put into their duties. It was evident to Jack that these royal guards had likely dealt with and thwarted real threats. No guard could maintain such focus and attention without taking pride in their work and finding fulfillment in it. Men like these craved action to feel fulfilled, of that Jack had no doubt. As he waited for the royal spokesman to announce his arrival, Jack observed each guard's micro-twitches, which suggested they were mentally simulating potential encounters with him and his canine companions at least four times over.
Unbeknownst to Jack, the guards who impressed him so much were also the first target for cutbacks whenever the kingdom faced financial woes. Despite recommendations from economy and administrative counselors to reduce expenses by eliminating the separate royal guard.
As Jack crossed the threshold, he looked around, consciously restraining his urge to scan the room too quickly for decorum's sake.
The room was lined with guards, positioned against the walls, their numbers denser near the throne. Amidst them, two large clusters of courtiers, whom Jack affectionately dubbed "gossip talkers," congregated around the center. Jack anticipated a grand rug to adorn the space between them, but instead, the floor was bare stone. Casting his gaze upward, Jack noted the lack of decoration throughout the throne room, contributing to its austere and cold atmosphere.
The king, seated upon his throne, appeared to be nursing a headache, his temples gently massaged by a servant positioned discreetly behind his seat. With eyes closed, he sought solace from the persistent ache. Meanwhile, his wife, Queen Mary, alternated her gaze between Jack and his companions, her concern evident as she monitored her husband's discomfort.
She leaned over to him, snapping the king from his pain relief trance like state, he straightened himself and the servant quietly disappeared into the shadows behind the throne.
Jack by this point has reached the spot where he is supposed to bow and address the king Soup and Lighting never detaching from his knee, quietly waiting for the king's acknowledgement to proceed with the formalities.
As their gazes met, the king gave a subtle nod, signaling Jack to begin. Keeping his back straight and maintaining eye contact with the king, Jack executed a respectful bow. Simultaneously, Soup and Lighting, ever attuned to their master's cues, lowered their torsos and heads in their own version of a bow, acknowledging the king in their canine way.
Jack congratulated himself for winning the stare contest he decided that he and the king were having, when the king looked away to appreciate his friend’s gesture. He then cursed himself for enjoying the pressure too much and to focus, as the room is filled with people who could make him disappear.
Jack momentarily congratulated himself for what he perceived as winning the unspoken stare contest with the king, only to quickly reprimand himself for indulging in such frivolity. As the king shifted his gaze to acknowledge Jack's companions, Soup and Lighting, Jack cursed inwardly, chiding himself for relishing the pressure of the moment. He reminded himself sternly to remain focused, acutely aware of the presence of numerous high influence men and women who could make him vanish without a trace.
Once all the formalities were concluded, Soup and Lighting settled down at Jack's side as the king addressed him directly. "Jack, my esteemed knight, do you recall that I served as your sword bearer during your knighting ceremony?" The king gestured toward Jack's bastard sword, prompting a flood of memories.
"I do, Your Highness," Jack replied, a mixture of respect and unease evident in his tone. "You graciously yielded your own sword, albeit with some reluctance, to fulfill my request for a bastard sword instead of the traditional longsword." Internally, Jack cringed at his choice of words. "What did I just say?" he scolded himself, mortified at the perceived familiarity in addressing the king's disposition.
To Jack’s relief, the king laughed. “I have heard you have taken good care of her as well," he remarked, referring to Jack's sword. "Before my father granted that territory to you, the kingdom suffered countless raids from the mutees, the grand forest in your territory providing them plenty of hiding and ambush spots for our armies. Your wise use of the forest for your timber industry and ability to defend it proves your merit to this kingdom”
The king continued to praise Jack. “Now, only ten years later, the mutee’s are our allies thanks to negotiations you started with their chief. Yet even more impressive than that, you have become one of the richest knights in my kingdom.”
Jack felt a lump form in his throat as he realized the king was praising him. In his experience, starting with the good things only meant the bad things were the important part saved for later.
"I had sent spies into your household, Jack," the king stated blankly. "I was afraid the secret of your success was, as is often the case for many, rooted in dark tidings." The king's smile softened the severity of his words. "But it’s not, is it? The secret of your success is you."
The king's revelation left Jack momentarily stunned, his mind racing to comprehend the implications of the king's surveillance. However, before he could gather his thoughts, the king continued.
"I need you here, in my council. You are wasted on a border territory."

I just need somewhere to vent because 2024 has been giving me the finger from the start. I keep telling myself that I’m gainfully employed, have a roof over my head, and family that love me and that’s a ton and should be enough, but this year has felt like trial by fire. I actually have a flipping list going of everything that’s happened, because after the first few things it feels somewhat comical. So here goes—

• Gets strep throat first week back to work after the holidays. Out of work for three days, then three more people at my work get strep and blame me even though I didn’t go in while contagious. And no, I don’t have a habit of partying too hard or licking things I shouldn’t.
  
• Two weeks later I start passing my first kidney stone big enough to really hurt. I spent 7 hours waiting to be seen and they were too swamped to break it up. Apparently it was borderline for needing it done, so they sent me home with OxyContin and ondansetron for the nausea from the oxy. It took four very nauseous, painful days to finally pass it.
  
• about three weeks after that, I get Covid for the second time, and I missed 7 days of work due to a negative testing to return policy. This infection also set off my migraines and occipital neuralgia leaving me in near constant pain for the rest of the month, even with medication
  
• Oh, and I’ve now developed progressively more severe acne without a hormonal component at 29 that won’t respond to any topical or course of antibiotics so I start taking accutane and start feeling geriatric from the side effects and look terrible.
  
• two weeks later, it’s been a week since I’ve heard from my grandfather who lives across the country and is estranged from the rest of my family. He’d been in the hospital for pneumonia and was just about to get discharged when we last spoke. Can’t get through to him either. I finally call the hospital and it turns out he had a severe afib episode and they had to put in a pacemaker and gave him too much contrast which damaged his kidneys and necessitated dialysis, which he wasn’t tolerating well. They decided he was completely incoherent due to fluid and waste retention and ignored him when he asked them to call me.
  
• later that week grandpa gets worse, and I need to start making medical decisions for him. He has to be medflighted out of state because the rural hospital he was at can’t provide the care he needs. Said hospital then “loses” his wallet keys, ID, and clothing before sending him out of state.
  
• a few days later, I fly out there. He’s gotten leaps and bounds better and we start talking about rehab and moving him back to be closer to family. I spend all of my time there visiting with him as much as possible, coordinating next steps, and doing my damndest to track down his lost stuff only to be told that it was mistakenly thrown away.
  
• a week later, I’ve had to fly back home. I get a call from him around 9 PM annoyed that the other patient in his room is making a ton of noise and he can’t sleep. I call the nurses station to see if they can get him some earplugs. He dies of cardiac arrest two hours later.
  
• Turns out grandpa died intestate and with no way for us to get copies of any IDs or anything. I have to get a lawyer in the state where he was living to start sorting that out and start trying to get Pestate executor status. He’d conveyed to me that he wanted to be cremated and interred at a veterans cemetery local to me, but we need my uncle to sign the paperwork. He puts up a fight over the cost until I tell him that him and my mother are legally entitled to a 50/50 split over whatever funds are left in the estate anyways.
  
• last week we get his cremains—including his pacemaker—which was a single lead pacemaker. Single lead pacemakers aren’t generally recommended for afib patients as they can cause pacemaker syndrome which can lead to kidney failure. That likely contributed to his death 🙃
  
• Later that week I start getting the worst acne breakout of my life, and I’m thinking it’s due to purging from the accutane. It progressively gets worse to the point that I can’t even look in the mirror without tearing up or go out in public, but I figure I may be being dramatic and will bring it up at my dermatology appointment on Monday
  
• Monday comes around and it turns out I’ve developed a severe, rare, and disfiguring form of nodulocystic acne called acne conglobata. I guess it’s often due to Staph bacteria overgrowth, and inflammation. So now I’m off the accutane for a week and taking prednisone and another antibiotic—but it could always come back again when I re-start the accutane, and my acne is likely to continue its prior course if I stay off the accutane anyways.
  

I just needed to get all this off my chest. It’s been a really rough 5 months.

DAY: APRIL 29 2024
​

• 4-29-2024ADVICE FOR PARENTS ON WHEN, HOW, WHAT TO SAY AND WHY IT’S SO IMPORTANT The “birds and the bees.” The “facts of life.” Whatever you call it, many parents dread discussing sex and sexuality with their teenagers. They may be embarrassed, or worried that they don’t understand some concepts. In some countries, cultural norms may mean it’s considered inappropriate for adults and adolescents to talk about sex.
• 4-29-2024FREQUENT TEEN VAPING MIGHT BOOST RISK OF TOXIC LEAD AND URANIUM EXPOSURE Vaping is popular with teens. In 2022, an estimated 14% of US high school students—around 2.14 million—and more than 3% of middle school students—around 380,000—reported vaping in the preceding month, note the researchers. Certain metals have been identified in e-cigarette aerosols and liquids. Their absorption
• 4-29-2024FENTANYL INHALATION MAY CAUSE POTENTIALLY IRREVERSIBLE BRAIN DAMAGE, WARN DOCTORS Inhaling the synthetic opioid fentanyl may cause potentially irreversible brain damage (toxic leukoencephalopathy), warn doctors in the journal BMJ Case Reports, after treating a middle-aged man found unresponsive in his hotel room after snorting the drug.
• 4-29-2024META-ANALYSIS FINDS CARDIO-FITNESS CUTS DEATH AND DISEASE BY NEARLY 20% Running, cycling, or swimming—if you regularly exercise, you’re well on track for a long and healthy life, as new research from the University of South Australia finds that an increased cardio fitness level will reduce your risk of death from any cause.
• 4-29-2024PEOPLE WITH OPIOID USE DISORDER LESS LIKELY TO RECEIVE PALLIATIVE CARE AT END OF LIFE, FINDS STUDY Compared with people without opioid use disorder, those with opioid use disorder were less likely to receive palliative care in clinics and in their homes, and were dying at younger ages of causes other than opioid use
• 4-29-2024STUDY SHOWS GREEN VIEWS LEAD TO HEALTHIER FOOD CHOICES Natural scenery typically conjures up positive emotions and a sense of well-being for most individuals. A new study suggests that spending time in a natural setting, such as walking in a park (vs. on city streets), or simply viewing greenery outside the window (vs. an urban view), leads people to make healthier food choices afterward.
• 4-29-2024‘VAMPIRE FACIALS’ WERE LINKED TO CASES OF HIV. HERE’S WHAT TO KNOW ABOUT THE BEAUTY TREATMENT The electron microscope image made available by the U.S. National Institutes of Health shows a human T cell, in blue, under attack by HIV, in yellow, the virus that causes AIDS. Three women who were diagnosed with HIV after getting “vampire facial” procedures at an unlicensed New Mexico medical spa are the first believed to have contracted the virus through a cosmetic procedure using needles, according to federal health officials.
• 4-29-2024HAVE SMARTPHONES CREATED AN ‘ANXIOUS GENERATION’? SOCIAL PSYCHOLOGIST SOUNDS THE ALARM The social psychologist Jonathan Haidt‘s new book The Anxious Generation delivers an urgent call for action. Haidt argues that the evidence is in. Teenagers’ widespread use of smartphones is causing a mental health crisis. Individual, collective and legislative action is required to limit their smartphone access.
• 4-29-2024WHAT IS PATHOLOGICAL DEMAND AVOIDANCE? “Charlie” is an eight-year-old child with autism. Her parents are worried because she often responds to requests with insults, aggression and refusal. Simple demands, such as being asked to get dressed, can trigger an intense need to control the situation, fights and meltdowns.
• 4-29-2024PHILIPS SETTLES US SLEEP MACHINE CASES FOR $1.1 BILLION Philips has been battling a series of crises over its DreamStation machines for sleep apnoea, a disorder in which breathing stops and starts during sleep. Dutch medical device maker Philips said Monday it had reached a $1.1 billion deal to settle US lawsuits over faulty sleep machines that have dogged the company.
• 4-29-2024THE DANGERS OF RELYING ON AI MENTAL HEALTH CHATBOTS With current physical and financial barriers to accessing care, people with mental health conditions may turn to artificial intelligence (AI)-powered chatbots for mental health relief or aid. the appeal to use such chatbots may come from their 24/7 availability, personalized support and marketing of cognitive behavioral therapy. However, users may overestimate the therapeutic benefits and underestimate the limitations of using such technologies
• 4-29-2024NAVIGATING NEGATIVE RESULTS, AGE, AGING DYNAMICS AND EQUITY A new study examining the role of aspirin in breast cancer treatment reveals critical issues related to health equity and aging that have broad implications for cancer and other disease intervention trials
• 4-29-2024LAST CHANCE FOR GLOBAL PANDEMIC AGREEMENT TALKS Countries returned to the negotiating table Monday for one last push to conclude an international agreement on how to handle future pandemics, with the most likely outcome being a slimmed-down accord that shelves some of the thorniest issues.
• 4-29-2024PARENTS ARE KEY TO TACKLING KIDS’ PICKY EATING, ACCORDING TO RESEARCH FINDINGS Five years of UniSC-led research into the pesky problem of picky eating by children suggests that therapists should focus more on empowering parents to ease family angst at the dinner table. The collaborative research highlighted the effectiveness of an online coaching intervention for parents to improve children’s mealtime behaviors.
• 4-29-2024AI ALGORITHMS CAN DETERMINE HOW WELL NEWBORNS NURSE, STUDY SHOWS Gathering data only takes 60 seconds of the infant sucking on the modified pacifier. Credit: University of California San Diego A modified pacifier and AI algorithms to analyze the data it produces could determine if newborns are learning the proper mechanics of nursing, a recent study shows.
• 4-29-2024RESEARCH REVEALS LINK BETWEEN FITNESS, HEALTH BEHAVIORS, BUILT ENVIRONMENT IN LARGEST US CITIES Two new studies from the Fairbanks School of Public Health on Indiana University’s Indianapolis campus examined the link between health behaviors, the built environment, and the health status of America’s largest cities.
• 4-29-2024 CURBING THE PRICE OF NOVEL DIABETES AND OBESITY MEDICATIONS For years, Kasia Lipska, MD, MHS, associate professor of medicine (endocrinology) at Yale School of Medicine (YSM), has been advocating for affordable pricing of insulin, an essential —and sometimes lifesaving—drug for many individuals with diabetes. Now, she is turning her attention to a similar trend of soaring prices among new diabetes and obesity medications.
• 4-29-20243D PRINTED SURGICAL IMPLANTS MAY SUPPORT CURES FOR BLINDNESS, CHRONIC PAIN AND NEUROLOGICAL DISEASES Clever bio-inks that sit inside the human body and restore damaged neurons could cure a whole swathe of diseases in the next 20 years: conditions that have baffled scientists and clinicians for centuries. Think blindness, deafness, chronic pain, epilepsy, motor neuron disease, and Parkinson’s disease.
• 4-29-2024RESEARCHERS INTRODUCE TEN-MINUTE BREATH TEST TO MONITOR ANTIBIOTIC CONCENTRATIONS Exhaled breath may be very promising alternative to blood for the therapeutic monitoring of antibiotics, the ESCMID Global Congress (formerly ECCMID) in Barcelona, Spain (27-30 April) will hear. Therapeutic drug monitoring (TDM) is used to monitor antibiotic concentrations in patients with severe infections and in patients in intensive care units.
• 4-29-2024PATHOGENS INCLUDING MULTI-DRUG RESISTANT SUPERBUGS FOUND ON FLOORS, CEILINGS AND DOOR HANDLES OF UK HOSPITAL TOILETS Pathogenic bacteria and fungi, including multi-drug resistant “superbugs” have been found on the floors, ceilings, door handles and other surfaces of hospital toilets in the UK, with patient toilets the worst affected r. Women’s bathrooms contained fewer microbes than men’s, with female staff toilets particularly clean, while unisex and disabled (also unisex) toilets were the most contaminated.
• 4-29-2024QUANTITATIVE STUDY ASSESSES HOW GENDER AND RACE IMPACT YOUNG ATHLETES’ PERCEPTIONS OF THEIR COACHES Across the U.S., there are over 8 million student-athletes in high school and college. Engaging in sports can contribute to physical, mental, and social benefits, and coaches can play a key role in student-athletes’ continued participation in sports. A study examines how multiple aspects of a young athlete’s identity, including gender and race, may relate to their perceptions of their coaches and mental health.
• 4-29-2024GAINS IN HEART FAILURE MORTALITY HAVE BEEN ERASED Declines in heart failure-related mortality from 1999 to 2012 were entirely reversed from 2012 to 2021, Wide-Ranging Online Data for Epidemiological Research to investigate the current status of heart failure mortality rates over time and by sociodemographic subgroups. The researchers found that heart failure-related mortality declined with an annual percentage change (APC) of ?1.62 percent
• 4-29-2024AI SHOWS GOOD CLINICAL KNOWLEDGE, REASONING FOR EYE ISSUES Large language models (LLMs) are approaching expert-level knowledge and reasoning skills in ophthalmology, Responses to 87 questions were compared for GPT-3.5, GPT-4, PaLM 2, LLaMA, expert ophthalmologists, and doctors in training. The researchers found that the performance of GPT-4 (69 percent) was superior to performance of GPT-3.5 (48 percent), LLaMA (32 percent), and PaLM
• 4-29-2024RESEARCHERS FROM DENMARK AND GERMANY FIND BROWN FAT’S ‘OFF-SWITCH Brown fat, also known as brown adipose tissue (BAT), is a type of fat in our bodies that’s different from the white fat around our belly and thighs that we are more familiar with. Brown fat has a special job—it helps to burn calories from the foods that we eat into heat, which can be helpful, especially when we’re exposed to cold temperatures like during winter swimming or cryotherapy.
  
• 4-29-2024AFTER 25 YEARS, RESEARCHERS UNCOVER GENETIC CAUSE OF RARE NEUROLOGICAL DISEASE
  
• 4-29-2024WHY WOMEN CAREGIVERS NEED MORE SUPPORT TO MANAGE THEIR RESPONSIBILITIES AND WELL-BEING
  
• 4-29-2024MACAQUE STUDY SHEDS LIGHT ON BRAIN’S PERCEPTION OF STATIC IMAGES
  
• 4-29-2024RESEARCHERS DETERMINE IDEAL DAILY BALANCE OF SITTING, SLEEPING, STANDING AND BEING ACTIVE FOR OPTIMAL HEALTH
  
• 4-29-2024STUDY REVEALS INTERACTION MECHANISM BETWEEN INTESTINAL MICROBIAL ENVIRONMENT AND TUMOR IMMUNE MICROENVIRONMENT
  
• 4-29-2024RESEARCHERS UNCOVER MOLECULAR MECHANISM OF NATURAL KILLER CELL DYSFUNCTION IN HODGKIN LYMPHOMA
  
• 4-29-2024HOW LA COUNTY IS TRYING TO REMAKE ADDICTION TREATMENT—NO MORE ‘BUSINESS AS USUAL’
  
• 4-29-2024NEW METHOD RAPIDLY REVEALS HOW PROTEIN MODIFICATIONS POWER T CELLS
  
• 4-29-2024RESEARCH SPOTLIGHTS WOMEN’S EXPERIENCES OF MATERNAL SUICIDE ATTEMPTS
  
• 4-29-2024IMMUNE CELL INTERACTION STUDY UNLOCKS NOVEL TREATMENT TARGETS FOR CHIKUNGUNYA VIRUS
  
• 4-29-2024RESEARCHERS SUGGEST EXPANDING HEALTH EQUITY BY INCLUDING NURSING HOME RESIDENTS IN CLINICAL TRIALS
  
• 4-29-2024STUDY EXPLORES BETTER WAYS TO DELIVER URGENT HEALTH ALERTS TO DIFFERENT LINGUISTIC GROUPS
  
• 4-29-2024ONLINE TREATMENT AS EFFECTIVE AS FACE-TO-FACE FOR KIDS WITH ANXIETY, STUDY FINDS
  
• 4-29-2024PEDIATRICIAN OFFERS ADVICE ON HOW TO HELP YOUR CHILD AVOID THE PITFALLS OF PERFECTIONISM
  
• 4-29-2024POLYAMOROUS YOUTH REPORT FACING STIGMA, HEIGHTENED LEVELS OF DEPRESSION
  
• 4-29-2024HOME VISION TESTS OFFER LIMITED DIAGNOSTIC ACCURACY FOR NEOVASCULAR AMD
  
• 4-29-2024NUTRITIONAL INTERVENTIONS FOR MODERATE- TO LATE-PRETERM INFANTS SHOW NO EFFECT
  
• 4-29-2024BRAIN FUNCTION OF OLDER ADULTS CATCHING UP WITH YOUNGER GENERATIONS, FINDS STUDY
  
• 4-29-2024PROTEIN RESPONSIBLE FOR GENETIC INFLAMMATORY DISEASE IDENTIFIED
  
• 4-29-2024MULTISITE QI COLLABORATIVE INCREASES APPROPRIATE PEDIATRIC ANTIBIOTIC USE
  
• 4-29-2024SYPHILIS IS INCREASINGLY DISPLAYING ATYPICAL, SEVERE SYMPTOMS
  
• 4-29-2024WHAT TO KNOW ABOUT MALARIA
  
• 4-29-2024UPTICK IN NEW YORK TRANSIT ASSAULT RATE DURING PANDEMIC HAS NOT RETURNED TO PRE-PANDEMIC LEVELS DESPITE SAFETY PLAN
  
• 4-29-2024STUDY REVEALS HIGHER INJURY AND ASSAULT RATES AMONG NEW YORK CITY FOOD DELIVERY GIG WORKERS DEPENDENT ON THE WORK
  
• 4-29-2024KAPOSI SARCOMA DISCOVERY AND MOUSE MODEL COULD FACILITATE DRUG DEVELOPMENT
  
• 4-29-2024STUDY FINDS INJURIES FROM E-BIKE ACCIDENTS ARE MORE SERIOUS THAN IN BICYCLE ACCIDENTS
  
• 4-29-2024MICROARRAY PATCHES SAFE AND EFFECTIVE FOR VACCINATING CHILDREN, TRIAL SHOWS
  
• 4-29-2024HEALTHY LIFESTYLE MAY OFFSET EFFECTS OF LIFE-SHORTENING GENES BY MORE THAN 60%
  
• 4-29-2024RESEARCH SHOWS LINK BETWEEN POLLUTION AND HEART RISKS IN RESIDENTS OF THE CITY OF SÃO PAULO, BRAZIL
  
• 4-29-2024RESEARCHERS DISCOVER THE MECHANISM THAT LINKS A DIET RICH IN FATS WITH ALZHEIMER’S DISEASE
  
• 4-29-2024RESEARCHERS DEVELOP MICROPLASTIC-FREE TRANSPARENT MASK
  
• 4-29-2024STUDY FINDS HEALTH CARE PROVIDERS PLAY CRUCIAL ROLE IN GUIDING AUTISTIC ADOLESCENTS AND THEIR FAMILIES INTO ADULTHOOD
  
• 4-29-2024STUDY IN HAITI SUGGESTS EARLY-ONSET HEART FAILURE IS PREVALENT FORM OF HEART DISEASE IN LOW-INCOME COUNTRIES
  
• 4-29-2024STUDY FINDS SCHOOL ENTRY REQUIREMENTS LINKED TO INCREASED HPV VACCINATION RATES
  
• 4-29-2024RACIST AND HETEROSEXIST STATE POLICIES AND POLICING MAY BE INCREASING BLACK SUICIDE RISK
  
• 4-29-2024SNAKE BITES IN PARAGUAY: AN OCCUPATIONAL HEALTH PROBLEM
  
• 4-29-2024SCIENTISTS DISCOVER KEY BACTERIUM THAT MAINTAINS PROTECTIVE INTESTINAL MUCUS BARRIER UNDER LOW-FIBER DIET
  
• 4-29-2024STUDY UNCOVERS THE MECHANISM THAT AVOIDS CONFLICTS IN THE ACTIVITY OF BRAIN STEM CELLS
  
• 4-29-2024CANCER SCREENING RATES SIGNIFICANTLY LOWER IN US FEDERALLY QUALIFIED HEALTH CENTERS, STUDY FINDS
  
• 4-29-2024SCIENTISTS DEVELOP NEW ORGANOID MODEL TO STUDY THYMUS FUNCTION
  
• 4-29-2024STUDY SUGGESTS THAT STEVIA IS THE MOST BRAIN-COMPATIBLE SUGAR SUBSTITUTE
  
• 4-29-2024EXPERIMENTAL DRUG SHIELDS PANCREAS FROM TYPE 1 DIABETES ATTACK
  
• 4-29-2024PANDEMIC FATIGUE AND VACCINE HESITANCY CONTINUE TO AFFECT GLOBAL PUBLIC HEALTH, NEW 23-COUNTRY STUDY FINDS
  
• 4-29-2024BLOOD SAMPLES ENHANCE B-CELL LYMPHOMA DIAGNOSTICS AND PROGNOSIS, STUDY SHOWS
  
• 4-29-2024VARYING PERFORMANCE BETWEEN DIFFERENT MECHANICAL CARDIAC VALVES EVALUATED BY RESEARCHERS
  
• 4-29-2024RESEARCHERS LOOK AT GENETIC CLUES TO DEPRESSION IN MORE THAN 14,000 PEOPLE
  
• 4-29-2024STUDY SHOWS CHATGPT FAILED WHEN CHALLENGING GUIDELINE FOR TREATING BRAIN ABSCESSES
  
• 4-29-2024THE CONTINUOUS DANGERS THAT POLIO AND THE OTHER ENTEROVIRUSES POSE
  
• 4-29-2024GLOBAL MEASLES CASES ALMOST DOUBLE IN A YEAR, SAY RESEARCHERS
  
• 4-29-2024RESEARCH FINDS NEGATIVITY ABOUT VACCINES SURGED ON TWITTER AFTER COVID-19 SHOTS BECAME AVAILABLE
  
• 4-29-2024CERVICAL CANCER VACCINE ROLL-OUT SHOWS EFFICACY IN REDUCING CERVICAL CANCER AND OTHER HPV-RELATED DISEASE
  
• 4-29-2024STUDY FINDS RESISTANCE TO CRITICALLY IMPORTANT ANTIBIOTICS IN UNCOOKED MEAT SOLD FOR HUMAN AND ANIMAL CONSUMPTION
  
• 4-29-2024CABOZANTINIB PROMISING FOR ADVANCED ADRENOCORTICAL CARCINOMA
  
• 4-29-2024TICK-BORNE POWASSAN VIRUS REPORTED IN MASSACHUSETTS
  
• 4-29-2024BIDEN ADMINISTRATION DELAYS MENTHOL CIGARETTE BAN
  
• 4-29-2024UNSHELTERED PEOPLE ARE LOSING MEDICAID IN REDETERMINATION MIX-UPS
  
• 4-29-2024LESS ALCOHOL, OR NONE AT ALL, IS ONE PATH TO BETTER HEALTH
  
• 4-29-2024RESEARCHERS DISCOVER ENZYMES THAT OPEN NEW PATH TO UNIVERSAL DONOR BLOOD
  
• 4-29-2024ANTENATAL CORTICOSTEROIDS DO NOT NEGATIVELY IMPACT OFFSPRING, FINDS STUDY
  
• 4-29-2024THE PATH TO A BETTER TUBERCULOSIS VACCINE RUNS THROUGH MONTANA
  
• 4-29-2024PATHFINDERS FOR AUTISM HELPS PEOPLE WITH AUTISM, FAMILIES NAVIGATE DIAGNOSIS
  
• 4-29-2024STEM CELLS IMPROVE MEMORY, REDUCE INFLAMMATION IN ALZHEIMER’S MOUSE BRAINS
  
• 4-29-2024ELECTROCONVULSIVE THERAPY FOUND TO BE SAFE, EFFECTIVE FOR RANGE OF SERIOUS MENTAL ILLNESSES
  
• 4-29-2024SMOKERS, FORMER SMOKERS MAY GAIN FROM SWITCH TO PLANT-BASED DIET
  
• 4-29-2024CANCER CELL–IMMUNE CELL INTERACTIONS CAN PREDICT IMMUNOTHERAPY RESPONSE
  
• 4-29-2024PEOPLE WITH ACUTE CALCIUM PYROPHOSPHATE FACE DOUBLED RISK FOR FRACTURE
  
• 4-29-2024RESEARCHERS EXPLORE NEW CELL TARGET FOR CYSTIC FIBROSIS TREATMENT
  
• 4-29-2024GEORGIA BECOMES FOCUS OF MATERNAL HEALTH DISCUSSION WITH VISIT FROM BIDEN ADMINISTRATION
  
• 4-29-2024TRIAL SHOWS LOWER DOSE OF MPOX VACCINE IS SAFE, GENERATES SIX-WEEK ANTIBODY RESPONSE EQUIVALENT TO STANDARD REGIMEN
  
• 4-29-2024FDA BRINGS LAB TESTS UNDER FEDERAL OVERSIGHT IN BID TO IMPROVE ACCURACY AND SAFETY
  
• 4-29-2024LAWS REQUIRING DOCTORS TO REPORT A DEMENTIA DIAGNOSIS TO THE DMV MAY BACKFIRE
  

Why does our guarantee seem so fishy?
We haven't needed it and haven't really thought much about it until recently.
Our guarantee has been a moot point because we have not had any dissatisfied customers.
None.
Of course that could change today. Our nurse could call today and say that "Bob" is not satisfied.
We had one client who we decided to refund because we were not making gains for him. The reason doesn't matter. He was not going to reach what we told him he would reach.
We believe it was because his flaccid length is much longer than his erect length from years of PE. Something seems to have changed within his penis. Our nurse has never seen that much easy stretch with anyone else. She described it like a rubber band.
It's Monday and I just got off a 90 minute meeting reviewing all of our clients. Anyone can be dissatisfied for any reason. But no client is being neglected or ignored. We identified three clients for intervention. Sometimes it's as simple as getting their consent to keep emphasizing girth over length. All three that we identified this morning are getting a different chamber design that works better under their circumstances.
I see now that we need to update all of the wording about our guarantee. I appreciate everyone who pointed out our inconsistencies.
We are a startup whose product has been serving men for a couple of years, but we are just now launching as a business. Of all the things we've had to work out, the wording of our guarantee hasn't been a serious concern. Someone last year said we should provide a guarantee and the obvious safe answer was an inch of length and and inch of girth.
If a client thought they might make a claim on our guarantee then the wording and our calculations are important to them so we will get it right with clear wording.
Why isn't the guarantee simply BPEL versus BPEL?
Our process requires a flaccid penis. Because we do not work with erect penises, we have to infer erect length. The rule of thumb that we see urologists using is that erect and flaccid length are nearly the same. That was the case for Chad, for instance, as I recall. And everyone we have monitored.
A few years ago I used a formula to predict erect length based on the "effort" to reach a particular stretch. The problem we found is that EQ is out of our control. With low EQ everything comes up short.
A related problem we still have is men who refuse to reveal their erect length. Statistically we can't learn anything about erect gains from them. All we learn during interviews is that they are satisfied with their gains. We can see their stretch length progression, but have no baseline. The "Increase" column on their progress report is blank.
We could insist on a medically induced erection upon admission. That would provide objective erect length improvement. If we start having dissatisfied clients this might be the plan. It's going to cost money and require making two visits to a clinic that is qualified to perform the procedure. It's an option.
So what do you compare?
Without measuring erect penises we have to make an estimate. We ask for initial erect length (BPEL) as a basis. Then we track how much we have stretched the penis beyond that length. In our experience, at the end of our therapy period erect length will be about 85 to 90% of the stretch we attain during therapy.
For example, my therapy stretch is about 8.4 inches and my erect length is 7.3 inches. That is 87%.
Using Chad as an example, his BPEL was 7 inches when he started therapy. So we expect to see his base therapy stretch get to around 7.77 inches (7 / 90%). And in a week we got him there.
To add an inch of BPEL we need him to stretch to around 8.9 inches for the last month, or about 60 sessions. That 8.9 inch number comes from dividing his target 8 inches by 90%. (8.9 inches is a bit over our maximum length measurement, but we will get him there.)
In other words, we have about two months to stretch his penis (during therapy) by 1.9 inches more than the erect length he started with. Then we get in the extra 2400 stretches over the last month to ensure his BPEL stays 8 inches.
For the record, 10 days into therapy he has already stretched to 7.9 inches. We have about 50 days of the first 60 days to get that next 0.9 inches of therapy stretch.
That's the way we calculate it.
Implications
It's easier to add length with a longer initial length. We have treated very few average length penises which is why one inch seems so achievable. We probably need to rewrite our guarantee in terms of percentage of volume increase. Last week I got the data to look into that.
Using volume increase would also factor in the men who are more focused on girth. And it would provide a basis for post-PE men whose gains might have caused internal changes which work against us adding length.
Personally, I would feel good seeing a shift in our clients toward men with below-average length penises. While the feelings of all men matter, in my personal view some men need us more than others. We are already doing some of that by disqualifying men who have an erect or flaccid length of 7.5 inches or more. (It should really be 7 inches). We will have a limited number of client openings. I have my sympathies and hopes.
If you have a better idea I am completely open to hearing it.
Jeff Lewis

Please someone tell me if I could possibly be okay.
I scheduled my NCLEX-RN for Tuesday, May 14 today… That’s in TWO WEEKS.
I am using Archer to study and have been for a while. Here are my stats: - CAT: Baseline failed at 150Q, then passed in 85Q, then failed in 85Q - Readiness: High, Borderline, Very High, Very High, Low, Very High
I took a 2-day review in class that I felt really didn’t help much. I’m watching BeautifulNursing’s comprehensive review, I’ve watched the main points of the videos on Archer (EKGs and critical care because I struggle with that on Archer but that is literally what my next job is, but also Basic Care & Comfort, Physiologic Adaptation, etc.)
I DO read and try to comprehend every rationale for questions that I miss. I’ve heard from tons of people that the readiness assessments are more accurate than the CAT exams on Archer, but I got a Low and a Very High within a week of each other so I am officially freaking out.
I’m just asking for literally any advice. I’ve scrolled endlessly on this app looking at other people’s experiences and have yet to find one similar to mine, regardless of the outcome… Anyone else???
Edited to add: On the Readiness assessment that I made a Low on, I omitted the medication calculation questions… Does this have any implication on the result?

Next
​
Figuring out your superpower is one of the most staggering moments in your life. Even more so for me, but everyone who makes the discovery of super strength or flight or laser eyes has their world rocked. The power opens doors, if they’re high level. If they’re worth enough. I had dreamt of being a hero, sometimes literally, since I was a child. That wasn’t surprising, since my uncle’s life was dramatically saved by one and he was quite the storyteller.
Then it all went wrong.
For me, the discovery occurred when I was sixteen, a little late to find out what your power is, but not too unheard of. At lunch with friends that Friday, I’d asked, “So, what’re you doing this weekend?”
“Same old, same old,” Hailey said. “Catch up on sleep. Homework. I really want to spend some time cutting some zombie heads off too.” But over her voice in my head echoed truths.
Putting a ton of effort into her science project.
Being miserable and doing homework so she doesn’t fail math again.
Screwing her boyfriend’s brains out.
Smoking too much pot.
I stared at Danielle in shock. “What the fuck was that?” I asked.
They all looked at me, surprised and confused.
“I thought you quit smoking?” I asked Danielle.
Her eyes narrowed. “I did. What are you talking about?”
That’s what she told you. She lied.
Silence descended around us and I asked, “I’m getting a different answer from…a voice in my head.” They all stared at me. “Is there something weird going on here?”
Yes.
I swallowed hard as my friends glanced to each other. “Is my superpower that every question I ask or someone asks me gets a true answer?”
Yes. All four of them turned to me in shock, seeing my face turn mortified. “That’s…so fucked,” I stammered. Burying my face in my hands, I muttered, “This can’t be happening, this can’t be real, it’s too extreme-”
Amanda put a hand on my shoulder, making me hunch over even more. “Hey, listen, you know what it is now,” she said, her tone skeptical but determined. “You can control what you say, so it’s not a problem. You’ll get used to it.”
I was surrounded by girls who’d been my friends for years, so I think that’s the only reason I didn’t full on panic. Amanda’s words were surely just instinctive; she’d known me so long that she knew what I needed to hear, what kind of comfort would help. They were looking at me warily, but also with awe. And it was an incredible power, but while I’d always wanted to be a hero, I wasn’t sure if I wanted to be this level, and certainly not while I was still in high school.
“I- I’m sixteen. I don’t want- This is too much. It’s…” Looking from one of my friends to the other, I slowly continued, “If my power is people answering questions then I-I don’t want to ask questions. I can’t ask questions! Imagine me in class asking something and my teacher is suddenly rambling on for ten minutes! And can you imagine the questions I might ask instinctively without thinking about the implications?”
Yes.
I groaned, folding my arms, and letting my head flop onto them. “This is it. My normal life is over and my superhero life starts now. There’s no one else out there who can ask questions and get the truth every time.”
“But…think about it,” Danielle said thoughtfully. “You could really make a difference. You could head out right now to some police interrogation and get the truth.”
Sighing heavily, I sat up. “I think I need to know how to control it before that’s possible.”
“No, she’s right,” Hailey cut in. “You seem to have a handle on it and it’s really straightforward. And this literally means you can get any answer from, like, a terrorist. Where some bomb is. Who is on their side, if there are any moles. I’ve watched enough movies to know secrets are some of the biggest obstacles when you’re fighting against supervillains.”
I grimaced. “Yeah. I guess.”
“No, this isn’t guessing,” Danielle told me. “Here. Ask me. Ask if you’ll be able to help a lot of people with your power.”
Worrying at my lower lip, my voice caught in my throat for a moment. Danielle nodded at me encouragingly. It took me a moment, but I finally asked, “Will I be able to help a lot of people with my power?”
Yes. When the word came out of her mouth, Danielle saw some of the tension slide out of my shoulders and grinned. “See?”
Glancing to the other girls, I asked, “If someone hid a bomb, could I get them to tell me the location and how to disarm it safely?”
Yes.
“If a villain has something next-level horrible planned, could I get all the details from them?”
Yes.
Danielle gestured with her hands. “See? This is awesome!”
Just to check, I asked a question in my head, not speaking it aloud. “Is Danielle still smoking pot?” There was no response, thank goodness. I don’t know what I would’ve done if every instinctive, random question I thought of was answered truthfully.
I nodded. “Okay.” I gave them a small smile. “Okay. So, I guess I need to go to the nurse. They need to call the Guild.”
Amanda gave my shoulder a squeeze. “It’s just going to take time to recalibrate your brain so that you always speak statements, so you don’t get information you don’t want,” she assured me. “It could be mind reading you had no control over, right? Could be worse.”
“Right.” Sighing heavily, I got up and left with my backpack, dumped the remnants of my lunch, and then headed off.
My nurse needed some convincing, but I started with something easy. “Ask me something I couldn’t know the answer to.”
She blinked in surprise. “Ah…what’s my cat’s name?”
I smiled. “Felix.”
Her eyebrows shot up. “Oh boy.”
“Yeah, you can say that again,” I chuckled.
Looking dazed, she dialed the number on her phone, making the call that would irrevocably change my life.
There were two guild members that came to fetch me, Fusion and Trailblazer. “You’re Joan Grandison?” Fusion asked.
“That’s me,” I said with a nervous smile as the word yes sounded through my head. Grimacing, I realized that that was indeed going to get annoying after all.
“Okay then. Right this way.”
I was driven to Guild headquarters, which was a giant, beautiful building I’d only ever seen on television. They sat me in a chair in a small office, something that looked like an IKEA-built office from the 70’s. Eventually I got bored and took out my phone to play Words With Friends, but there was no reception and all the wi-fi spots were locked. I sighed, slumping in my chair, looking around the room.
There were some accolades on the wall to my right and a large bookshelf stuffed with books to my left. I wanted something to read. However, from the spines, the books looked like they were all heavy types, thick with jargon and technical information about the superhero and supervillain world, so they weren’t that appealing.
“Hm. Which of these books would I enjoy reading?”
The Great and the Weary by Margaret Bryant.
Standing up, I went over and looked over the expanse of books. “Where is it?”
Second shelf up, twenty-four books from the left.
Following the directions, I picked out the book and read the blurb on the back. “Oh this sounds funny.” Taking a seat, I leaned back and started to read. Ten minutes in, I realized my ability hadn’t steered me wrong, and I smiled.
It took over an hour for them to come back. “Hey,” I said as the woman walked in. “You guys forget about me?”
No.
“Of course not,” she said with a tight smile. I noticed Trailblazer stood in the corner, out of the way, as the woman held out a hand. “I’m Valerie Hayek, and I’m in charge of…logistics.”
I shook her hand and put the book down on her desk. “Okay.” I was careful not to ask any more questions. I didn’t want to know some top secret information by accident, that’s for sure. Just letting her explain things would be for the best.
“We had a long discussion; that’s what kept you waiting. The Guild is going to have an emergency meeting to discuss your abilities and their implications.”
“Oh…wow,” I managed. “Okay, so…what do I do?”
“Would you be okay waiting here?” she asked. “It’s going to be a long wait, but I see you already found a book you like.”
“Yeah, my power helped me out,” I said with a grin.
“Right,” she said, her voice tense. My grin faded. “This is a severe superpower, so we’re going to need some time to discuss…everything.”
“All right,” I said. I wrung my hands. “Do my parents know I’m here? That I’m okay?”
“Yes, we called them,” Valerie said with a nod.
Yes they know you’re here and okay.
She stiffened and I realized my mistake. “Sorry,” I winced. “I’m still- I need to get used to it. I didn’t mean to-”
“It’s fine,” she assured me. “If you need anything, Trailblazer will be right outside. He can get you an early dinner if this meeting lasts that long. And they can go quite long.”
“Wow. Okay.” That seemed mildly terrifying. The Guild’s top brass were having a meeting about me that was going to go on for ages? “I’ll just…wait here, then.”
The woman nodded again, forcing a smile, before leaving with Trailblazer. I realized the implications of that also, the fact that a high-ranking superhero was there to look after me. Was he there to keep me safe or keep me from leaving?
I didn’t ask the question aloud.
It took ages for them to finish, and at about 4:30 I did indeed open the door and let Trailblazer know I was hungry and wanted to order a pizza. He said got me a pepperoni delivered from Dominos with a bottle of Coke, and I ate it by myself, in that little room, left to ruminate in my thoughts. If I hadn’t had books to occupy my mind, I would’ve probably lost it out of paranoia.
Finally, Valerie returned. “All right. I apologize for the long wait,” she told me, taking a seat behind her desk.
“I mean, it’s not your fault.”
“Right, right…” She took a breath. “Miss Grandison…I’m afraid the Guild has concluded that you’re a tier five supervillain.”
A silence, thick like cotton, settled over us, heavy and suffocating. “They…what?” I whispered in astonishment.
The Guild has concluded that you’re a tier five supervillain, the voice in my head repeated unhelpfully.
“I know this is a shock,” Valerie told me. “It’s a matter of national security, you see. Ask any question, get the truth? It’s impossible to label you a superhero.”
I glared at her. “Label? I’m not being labeled. I’m being…branded,” I said quietly. “Any of the other heroes could use their powers for evil. I’m not a supervillain. I’m a girl who’s still in high school. What about- I can ask villains questions! If there’s some emergency and you need the truth-”
“That’s not how this works,” she said, looking sympathetic. “I’m terribly sorry. But the fact that you can only learn things you speak aloud is incredibly valuable here. It gives us some wiggle room in terms of managing it.”
“Managing it,” I echoed. “What does that mean?”
“It means figuring out a training regimen and deciding how to best protect you from those who would want to use your abilities.”
It means deciding what kind of lockdown you’ll be put under, whether it’s an ankle bracelet or a supermax prison.
My face went slack and my breath caught in my throat. Valerie noticed my change in demeanor and comprehension bloomed on her face. “All right. You clearly got another answer.”
“You want to put me in prison,” I whispered. Tears came to my eyes, unbidden and annoying. I blinked them back quickly. “You can’t just do that. I’m a person. Whatever you’re doing to make sure I don’t turn into a supervillain, you can’t just shove me in the deepest hole you can find.”
“Shoving you in a hole is not what this is,” she assured me. “But I want you to think about how dangerous this would be to your friends and family. You can’t defend yourself. If a supervillain kidnaps you and a loved one of yours, threatens them, they could get answers to questions that would make them capable of nearly anything. The sky’s the limit. Essentially, the Guild has declared you the most dangerous supervillain in existence.”
I flinched and, folding my arms and leaning back in my chair, I grasped my elbows tightly. The image of my two little brothers being bound and gagged, threatened by a notorious supervillain I’d seen rampaging on TV at one point or another, sent a shiver down my spine. Not just them. My parents. My friends. Would I ever see them again?
“You’ll live here, in a guest suite,” she told me. “And you’ll be given an ankle monitor so-”
“I want to talk to my parents,” I whimpered.
“They’re on their way,” Valerie said with a nod of her head. “It’s a matter of determining what’s safest for them. It may be that they’ll vie for tracking devices in case of a kidnapping, or they might move into Guild headquarters with you.”
Blinking back more tears, I quietly spoke, “But-But I have school. And my bedroom, all my stuff-”
“It will all be packed and brought here,” she told me reassuringly. “And you can still text your friends from your old school and talk to them, though you might want to reassess whether staying close with them is something you want to do.”
She was already calling it my old school. I’d just left it six hours ago.
The tears were finally telling me in no uncertain terms that they were coming. “Can I please have a moment alone?” I choked out.
Yes.
“Of course,” Valerie said softly, pushing herself to her feet. She glanced at Trailblazer and motioned outside, and the two of them left.
I didn’t so much burst into tears as I melted into a puddle of them.
​
Next

Original prompt: https://www.reddit.com/WritingPrompts/comments/k42lei/wp_you_have_one_super_power_the_ability_to_know/
***
Figuring out your superpower is one of the most staggering moments in your life. Even more so for me, but everyone who makes the discovery of super strength or flight or laser eyes has their world rocked. The power opens doors, if they’re high level. If they’re worth enough. I had dreamt of being a hero, sometimes literally, since I was a child. That wasn’t surprising, since my uncle’s life was dramatically saved by one and he was quite the storyteller.
Then it all went wrong.
For me, the discovery occurred when I was sixteen, a little late to find out what your power is, but not too unheard of. At lunch with friends that Friday, I’d asked, “So, what’re you doing this weekend?”
“Same old, same old,” Hailey said. “Catch up on sleep. Homework. I really want to spend some time cutting some zombie heads off too.” But over her voice in my head echoed truths.
Putting a ton of effort into her science project.
Being miserable and doing homework so she doesn’t fail math again.
Screwing her boyfriend’s brains out.
Smoking too much pot.
I stared at Danielle in shock. “What the fuck was that?” I asked.
They all looked at me, surprised and confused.
“I thought you quit smoking?” I asked Danielle.
Her eyes narrowed. “I did. What are you talking about?”
That’s what she told you. She lied.
Silence descended around us and I asked, “I’m getting a different answer from…a voice in my head.” They all stared at me. “Is there something weird going on here?”
Yes.
I swallowed hard as my friends glanced to each other. “Is my superpower that every question I ask or someone asks me gets a true answer?”
Yes. All four of them turned to me in shock, seeing my face turn mortified. “That’s…so fucked,” I stammered. Burying my face in my hands, I muttered, “This can’t be happening, this can’t be real, it’s too extreme-”
Amanda put a hand on my shoulder, making me hunch over even more. “Hey, listen, you know what it is now,” she said, her tone skeptical but determined. “You can control what you say, so it’s not a problem. You’ll get used to it.”
I was surrounded by girls who’d been my friends for years, so I think that’s the only reason I didn’t full on panic. Amanda’s words were surely just instinctive; she’d known me so long that she knew what I needed to hear, what kind of comfort would help. They were looking at me warily, but also with awe. And it was an incredible power, but while I’d always wanted to be a hero, I wasn’t sure if I wanted to be this level, and certainly not while I was still in high school.
“I- I’m sixteen. I don’t want- This is too much. It’s…” Looking from one of my friends to the other, I slowly continued, “If my power is people answering questions then I-I don’t want to ask questions. I can’t ask questions! Imagine me in class asking something and my teacher is suddenly rambling on for ten minutes! And can you imagine the questions I might ask instinctively without thinking about the implications?”
Yes.
I groaned, folding my arms, and letting my head flop onto them. “This is it. My normal life is over and my superhero life starts now. There’s no one else out there who can ask questions and get the truth every time.”
“But…think about it,” Danielle said thoughtfully. “You could really make a difference. You could head out right now to some police interrogation and get the truth.”
Sighing heavily, I sat up. “I think I need to know how to control it before that’s possible.”
“No, she’s right,” Hailey cut in. “You seem to have a handle on it and it’s really straightforward. And this literally means you can get any answer from, like, a terrorist. Where some bomb is. Who is on their side, if there are any moles. I’ve watched enough movies to know secrets are some of the biggest obstacles when you’re fighting against supervillains.”
I grimaced. “Yeah. I guess.”
“No, this isn’t guessing,” Danielle told me. “Here. Ask me. Ask if you’ll be able to help a lot of people with your power.”
Worrying at my lower lip, my voice caught in my throat for a moment. Danielle nodded at me encouragingly. It took me a moment, but I finally asked, “Will I be able to help a lot of people with my power?”
Yes. When the word came out of her mouth, Danielle saw some of the tension slide out of my shoulders and grinned. “There. Exactly.”
Glancing to the other girls, I asked, “If someone hid a bomb, could I get them to tell me the location and how to disarm it safely?”
Yes.
“If a villain has something next-level horrible planned, could I get all the details from them?”
Yes.
Danielle gestured with her hands. “See? This is awesome!”
Just to check, I asked a question in my head, not speaking it aloud. “Is Danielle still smoking pot?” There was no response, thank goodness. I don’t know what I would’ve done if every instinctive, random question I thought of was answered truthfully.
I nodded. “Okay.” I gave them a small smile. “Okay. So, I guess I need to go to the nurse. They need to call the Guild.”
Amanda gave my shoulder a squeeze. “It’s just going to take time to recalibrate your brain so that you always speak statements, so you don’t get information you don’t want,” she assured me. “It could be mind reading you had no control over, right? Could be worse.”
“Right.” Sighing heavily, I got up and left with my backpack, dumped the remnants of my lunch, and then headed off.
My nurse needed some convincing, but I started with something easy. “Ask me something I couldn’t know the answer to.”
She blinked in surprise. “Ah…what’s my cat’s name?”
I smiled. “Felix.”
Her eyebrows shot up. “Oh boy.”
“Yeah, you can say that again,” I chuckled.
Looking dazed, she dialed the number on her phone, making the call that would irrevocably change my life.
There were two guild members that came to fetch me, Fusion and Trailblazer. “You’re Joan Grandison?” Fusion asked.
“That’s me,” I said with a nervous smile as the word yes sounded through my head. Grimacing, I realized that that was indeed going to get annoying after all.
“Okay then. Right this way.”
I was driven to Guild headquarters, which was a giant, beautiful building I’d only ever seen on television. They sat me in a chair in a small office, something that looked like an IKEA-built office from the 70’s. Eventually I got bored and took out my phone to play Words With Friends, but there was no reception and all the wi-fi spots were locked. I sighed, slumping in my chair, looking around the room.
There were some accolades on the wall to my right and a large bookshelf stuffed with books to my left. I wanted something to read. However, from the spines, the books looked like they were all heavy types, thick with jargon and technical information about the superhero and supervillain world, so they weren’t that appealing.
“Hm. Which of these books would I enjoy reading?”
The Great and the Weary by Margaret Bryant.
Standing up, I went over and looked over the expanse of books. “Where is it?”
Second shelf up, twenty-four books from the left.
Following the directions, I picked out the book and read the blurb on the back. “Oh this sounds funny.” Taking a seat, I leaned back and started to read. Ten minutes in, I realized my ability hadn’t steered me wrong, and I smiled.
It took over an hour for them to come back. “Hey,” I said as the woman walked in. “You guys forget about me?”
No.
“Of course not,” she said with a tight smile. I noticed Trailblazer stood in the corner, out of the way, as the woman held out a hand. “I’m Valerie Hayek, and I’m in charge of…logistics.”
I shook her hand and put the book down on her desk. “Okay.” I was careful not to ask any more questions. I didn’t want to know some top secret information by accident, that’s for sure. Just letting her explain things would be for the best.
“We had a long discussion; that’s what kept you waiting. The Guild is going to have an emergency meeting to discuss your abilities and their implications.”
“Oh…wow,” I managed. “Okay, so…what do I do?”
“Would you be okay waiting here?” she asked. “It’s going to be a long wait, but I see you already found a book you like.”
“Yeah, my power helped me out,” I said with a grin.
“Right,” she said, her voice tense. My grin faded. “This is a severe superpower, so we’re going to need some time to discuss…everything.”
“All right,” I said. I wrung my hands. “Do my parents know I’m here? That I’m okay?”
“Yes, we called them,” Valerie said with a nod.
Yes they know you’re here and okay.
She stiffened and I realized my mistake. “Sorry,” I winced. “I’m still- I need to get used to it. I didn’t mean to-”
“It’s fine,” she assured me. “If you need anything, Trailblazer will be right outside. He can get you an early dinner if this meeting lasts that long. And they can go quite long.”
“Wow. Okay.” That seemed mildly terrifying. The Guild’s top brass were having a meeting about me that was going to go on for ages? “I’ll just…wait here, then.”
The woman nodded again, forcing a smile, before leaving with Trailblazer. I realized the implications of that also, the fact that a high-ranking superhero was there to look after me. Was he there to keep me safe or keep me from leaving?
I didn’t ask the question aloud.
It took ages for them to finish, and at about 4:30 I did indeed open the door and let Trailblazer know I was hungry and wanted to order a pizza. He said got me a pepperoni delivered from Dominos with a bottle of Coke, and I ate it by myself, in that little room, left to ruminate in my thoughts. If I hadn’t had books to occupy my mind, I would’ve probably lost it out of paranoia.
Finally, Valerie returned. “All right. I apologize for the long wait,” she told me, taking a seat behind her desk.
“I mean, it’s not your fault.”
“Right, right…” She took a breath. “Miss Grandison…I’m afraid the Guild has concluded that you’re a tier five supervillain.”
A silence, thick like cotton, settled over us, heavy and suffocating. “They…what?” I whispered in astonishment.
The Guild has concluded that you’re a tier five supervillain, the voice in my head repeated unhelpfully.
“I know this is a shock,” Valerie told me. “It’s a matter of national security, you see. Ask any question, get the truth? It’s impossible to label you a superhero.”
I glared at her. “Label? I’m not being labeled. I’m being…branded,” I said quietly. “Any of the other heroes could use their powers for evil. I’m not a supervillain. I’m a girl who’s still in high school. What about- I can ask villains questions! If there’s some emergency and you need the truth-”
“That’s not how this works,” she said, looking sympathetic. “I’m terribly sorry. But the fact that you can only learn things you speak aloud is incredibly valuable here. It gives us some wiggle room in terms of managing it.”
“Managing it,” I echoed. “What does that mean?”
“It means figuring out a training regimen and deciding how to best protect you from those who would want to use your abilities.”
It means deciding what kind of lockdown you’ll be put under, whether it’s an ankle bracelet or a supermax prison.
My face went slack and my breath caught in my throat. Valerie noticed my change in demeanor and comprehension bloomed on her face. “All right. You clearly got another answer.”
“You want to put me in prison,” I whispered. Tears came to my eyes, unbidden and annoying. I blinked them back quickly. “You can’t just do that. I’m a person. Whatever you’re doing to make sure I don’t turn into a supervillain, you can’t just shove me in the deepest hole you can find.”
“Shoving you in a hole is not what this is,” she assured me. “But I want you to think about how dangerous this would be to your friends and family. You can’t defend yourself. If a supervillain kidnaps you and a loved one of yours, threatens them, they could get answers to questions that would make them capable of nearly anything. The sky’s the limit. Essentially, the Guild has declared you the most dangerous supervillain in existence.”
I flinched and, folding my arms and leaning back in my chair, I grasped my elbows tightly. The image of my two little brothers being bound and gagged, threatened by a notorious supervillain I’d seen rampaging on TV at one point or another, sent a shiver down my spine. Not just them. My parents. My friends. Would I ever see them again?
“You’ll live here, in a guest suite,” she told me. “And you’ll be given an ankle monitor so-”
“I want to talk to my parents,” I whimpered.
“They’re on their way,” Valerie said with a nod of her head. “It’s a matter of determining what’s safest for them. It may be that they’ll vie for tracking devices in case of a kidnapping, or they might move into Guild headquarters with you.”
Blinking back more tears, I quietly spoke, “But-But I have school. And my bedroom, all my stuff-”
“It will all be packed and brought here,” she told me reassuringly. “And you can still text your friends from your old school and talk to them, though you might want to reassess whether staying close with them is something you want to do.”
She was already calling it my old school. I’d just left it six hours ago.
The tears were finally telling me in no uncertain terms that they were coming. “Can I please have a moment alone?” I choked out.
Yes.
“Of course,” Valerie said softly, pushing herself to her feet. She glanced at Trailblazer and motioned outside, and the two of them left.
I didn’t so much burst into tears as I melted into a puddle of them.
***
storiesbykaren

Health products can be "high reward" but also "high risk". What does high RISK exactly mean in this context?

• Health products have a higher risk of our Affiliate content getting flagged for violation. Why? There are sooooooo manyyyyyy moreeeeee policies regarding what we can and can't say, what we can and can't show, how we promote products in the health category. See here and here and here and see below. 🥴 But if you become knowledgeable about these policies, there's potential for high reward. 🤑
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There are sooooooo manyyyyyy moreeeeee policies regarding what we can and can't say, what we can and can't show, how we promote products in the health category. ⬇️
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we're NOT allowed to promote any prohibited products, even if they show up on TikTok Shop as a listing:
TikTok Shop strictly prohibits the sale of certain body and mental wellness products and supplements in order to foster a responsible and safe environment for our users. This policy is associated with products frequently linked to the pursuit of idealized body shapes, patterns of disordered eating, and any potential negative influence on mental health.

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NHS - can I update panorama?
I worked in a location which was featured as a panorama investigation but quit in March. The circumstances around me quitting were due to similar reasons evidenced in the panorama. All this happened post the panorama show. I want to raise a grievance anyway but I also want to report them to CQC and give an update to panorama as I fear they merely scratched the surface of the problem. I was employed there for about a year and a half and worked in England.
I just wondered what backlash I could expect to face, both legally and personally, before I do this as I now continue to work for NHS but under a different trust and if it would have implications for practice as I am a qualified nurse.
I am seeking legal advice but also opinions on whether it would get backlash in a legal sense. And whether there is a policy on things like these in workplaces?
Just to ensure understanding, I do not want recommendations to go to the press. I only want to understand legal implications and potential personal implications.

I worked in a location which was featured as a panorama investigation but quit in March. The circumstances around me quitting were due to similar reasons evidenced in the panorama. All this happened post the panorama show. I want to raise a grievance anyway but I also want to report them to CQC and give an update to panorama as I fear they merely scratched the surface of the problem.
I just wondered what backlash I could expect to face, both legally and personally, before I do this as I now continue to work for NHS but under a different trust and if it would have implications for practice as I am a qualified nurse.
I am not seeking legal advice explicitly I suppose but merely opinions on whether it would get backlash in a legal sense. And whether there is a policy on things like these in workplaces? Any help is appreciated!

I worked in a location which was featured as a panorama investigation but quit in March. The circumstances around me quitting were due to similar reasons evidenced in the panorama. All this happened post the panorama show. I want to raise a grievance anyway but I also want to report them to CQC and give an update to panorama as I fear they merely scratched the surface of the problem.
I just wondered what backlash I could expect to face, both legally and personally, before I do this as I now continue to work for NHS but under a different trust and if it would have implications for practice as I am a qualified nurse.
I am not seeking legal advice but merely opinions on whether it would get backlash in a legal sense. And whether there is a policy on things like these in workplaces?

I worked in a location which was featured as a panorama investigation but quit in March. The circumstances around me quitting were due to similar reasons evidenced in the panorama. All this happened post the panorama show. I want to raise a grievance anyway but I also want to report them to CQC and give an update to panorama as I fear they merely scratched the surface of the problem.
I just wondered what backlash I could expect to face, both legally and personally, before I do this as I now continue to work for NHS but under a different trust and if it would have implications for practice as I am a qualified nurse.
I am not seeking legal advice but merely opinions on whether it would get backlash in a legal sense. And whether there is a policy on things like these in workplaces?

I worked in a location which was featured as a panorama investigation but quit in March. The circumstances around me quitting were due to similar reasons evidenced in the panorama. All this happened post the panorama show. I want to raise a grievance anyway but I also want to report them to CQC and give an update to panorama as I fear they merely scratched the surface of the problem.
I just wondered what backlash I could expect to face, both legally and personally, before I do this as I now continue to work for NHS but under a different trust and if it would have implications for practice as I am a qualified nurse.
I am not seeking legal advice but merely opinions on whether it would get backlash in a legal sense. And whether there is a policy on things like these in workplaces?

I worked in a location which was featured as a panorama investigation but quit in March. The circumstances around me quitting were due to similar reasons evidenced in the panorama. All this happened post the panorama show. I want to raise a grievance anyway but I also want to report them to CQC and give an update to panorama as I fear they merely scratched the surface of the problem.
I just wondered what backlash I could expect to face, both legally and personally, before I do this as I now continue to work for NHS but under a different trust and if it would have implications for practice as I am a qualified nurse.
I am not seeking legal advice but merely opinions on whether it would get backlash in a legal sense. And whether there is a policy on things like these in workplaces?

I worked in a location which was featured as a panorama investigation but quit in March. The circumstances around me quitting were due to similar reasons evidenced in the panorama. All this happened post the panorama show. I want to raise a grievance anyway but I also want to report them to CQC and give an update to panorama as I fear they merely scratched the surface of the problem.
I just wondered what backlash I could expect to face, both legally and personally, before I do this as I now continue to work for NHS but under a different trust and if it would have implications for practice as I am a qualified nurse.
I am not seeking legal advice but merely opinions on whether it would get backlash in a legal sense. And whether there is a policy on things like these in workplaces?

Author note: The Cryopod to Hell is a Reddit-exclusive story with over three years of editing and refining. As of this post, the total rewrite is 2,158,000+ words long! For more information, check out the link below:
What is the Cryopod to Hell?
Join the Cryoverse Discord server!
Here's a list of all Cryopod's chapters, along with an ePub/Mobi/PDF version!
Want to stay up to date on TCTH? Subscribe to Cryopodbot!
...................................
(Previous Part)
(Part 001)
When Phoebe steps up to the podium, her heart wavers for a moment.
Neil's twisting of reality, and his manipulation of the masses has truly gone far beyond what she could accomplish.
In her eyes, only one word describes the man seated behind her.
Shameless!
It doesn't take her much effort to deduce that Neil must have decided to marry Corporal Hurent on the spot in order to obtain political brownie points. Having spoken to Jason several times over the last several weeks, she's long known about Neil and Linda's only recently budded romance, and that the two of them haven't even been particularly serious in their courtship attempts.
They aren't enjoying some youthful whirlwind romance. They've barely even held hands!
The idea that Neil would use Linda as a political prop sickens Phoebe. She feels a momentary urge to vomit out of pure disgust, but holds that desire in, stabilizing herself to face the crowd once more.
She could call Neil out, but what would that accomplish? Many people wouldn't believe her, and even if they did, it would seem like an even cheaper political ploy than what Neil did. It would only serve to harm humanity's interests in the long run by planting seeds of distrust.
Phoebe softly sighs.
She'll have to take the high road, even if he goes low.
"Well, hello again, everyone." Phoebe says slowly. "I'd like to first offer my congratulations to Neil and Linda on their engagement. I'm pleased to see that they will be starting a family together. Neil is certainly correct that humanity needs to focus on reproducing and getting our numbers up..."
She pauses for half a beat.
"...though, I do wonder about something. How are people supposed to raise a family together if our species is on a perpetual path of making enemies, dredging up ancient hatred, and otherwise doing everything we can to foment turmoil among our non-human peers? Please take it from a mother like me; raising a family is hard enough when your living situation is unstable. And losing a child can irreparably break a piece of your soul away."
Neil maintains his smile, but inside, he feels more than a little angry by her implication. After all, he knows well the pain of losing a family, even more than she does.
"Humanity needs a bigger population. A MUCH bigger population." Phoebe continues. "A hundred times bigger would still be insignificant in the scheme of the Milky Way. The Volgrim Technopaths alone would still outnumber us a hundred to one, to say nothing of the Demons! But I disagree with this idea that humans loving non-humans is a terrible thing. Who is to say that any form of love is wrong? I would rather a man lie with another man than have them lash out and try to hurt one another! Love is always good, and we humans would do well to focus more on it!"
Some of the people in the audience raise an eyebrow. To these sorts, Phoebe's speech once again comes off as naive and idealistic.
Luckily, she immediately addresses that in her next statement.
"Of course, Neil is also right about the fact that we are in a war, and thus we cannot necessarily live perfect, quaint little lives. The Plague could attack Tarus II tomorrow, and that would be a terrible tragedy, to say the least. We must be ready and willing to battle to the death with those who would cause us harm, and that fact is not in dispute."
She crosses her arms, looking somewhat annoyed.
"You know, I've noticed a certain theme underlying all of Neil's words. He speaks of Jason rather nastily, as if my husband were a buffoon who constantly fails over and over again while failing to improve as a man, and as a leader. I take offense to this implication because in a roundabout way, it implies I am stupid for believing in him. Nothing could be further from the truth!"
"Jason has been hard at work of late. He has come up with several incredible new forms of technology, warfare tactics, and holistic improvements to our species that we haven't told you all about yet. He has been testing them for viability, and many appear to be quite promising."
Phoebe looks at various random people in the crowd, holding her gaze on each one for a second or two before moving on. This effect makes it seem as if she is looking at specific individuals, making them feel special.
"Humanity is Flawed..." Phoebe says slowly, causing the hairs to stand up on the back of Neil's neck. "That has been the case since the Archangel Uzziel first uplifted us from the DNA of our simian ancestors. From the very beginning, she placed invisible shackles on our power at the behest of Archangel Raphael..."
Dammit! Neil thinks. She waited until she had the final retort to bring out the information about the Flaw! I thought she might not even mention it publicly for fear of the news getting out! Are she and Jason truly so unafraid of our enemies knowing all of our advancements?!
While Neil rages internally, Phoebe continues.
"The Human Flaw is a mysterious condition. Jason and I were uncertain of the effects that would occur if we cleansed it, and we didn't want to get anyone's hope's up in the event that doing so didn't work. But, I assure you, fixing Humanity's Flaw HAS resulted in an incredible benefit to our species. We're still uncovering all the after-effects, but so far the results have been nothing short of wondrous!"
...
Inside the Changeling Bunker, hidden deep beneath the Fortress of Retribution's upper plateau.
A handful of Changelings hurriedly speak into communication devices as they watch the broadcast. One of those happens to be the Sixth-Class Settler, Informer Jin, who has taken command of the situation ever since their superior Changeling officer's disappearance. After Mephisto's attack on Tarus II, Operative Duugo disappeared, and nobody knows where they went.
Jin hurriedly collects all the information they can find about the Human Flaw as they prepare to transmit a data burst to Volgarius, synchronized with the random fluctuations in Tarus II's atmospheric static so nobody will be the wiser.
Just before Jin is ready to transmit, a female voice speaks in his head.
[Operative Jin. I have already informed the Founders of this matter.]
Jin sits up slightly in their chair. They recognize the voice as belonging to the High Psion known as Creator Demila.
You have? Jin thinks, allowing their mind to be read.
[Yes. Do not risk a data burst needlessly. I am observing Tarus II from a hundred kilometers above the upper atmosphere. I have known about the Human Flaw for longer than you can imagine, as well as the Wordsmith's repairing of it some time ago. I am in talks with the Founders as to what measures we should take to mitigate the situation.]
This one contemplates and comprehends. Jin acknowledges, lowering their hands as they decide to go along with what Demila says. As the highest ranking Volgrim in the area, she is naturally to be deferred to on matters such as these.
[Delete that log you were going to make as well.] Demila adds. [It would be best if we do not leave any traces for the humans to find. We are not certain if and when they might uncover your base of operations.]
A sensible plan. This one will do as you say. Jin says, before reaching into the files and deleting Phoebe's statements about the Human Flaw.
Satisfied, Demila retracts her Psionic Sense.
She remains levitating in the Void while listening to the speech on the planet below, an expression of worry playing upon her face.
[This is a dangerous game.] Demila says to herself. [It could cost the Volgrim Empire dearly...]
The voice of Desire whispers seductively inside her mind.
Every gamble is dangerous, Demila dearest. Desire says. If you want to climb to the peak of power, you have to be willing to break a few rules. Otherwise, with your... lacking foundation... you will never achieve it.
Demila glowers at that thought. [If I fail to ascend after paying this price, that would be truly miserable.]
...
Phoebe continues her speech, growing more excited as she speaks.
"Fixing the Human Flaw is more significant than you all know! We first discovered that it was repairable as a result of our brave men and women who don T-REX suits and protect our civilization every day. Several amazing individuals, such as Lieutenant Samuel Baker, Private Ashley McCarthy, and others have worn the Power Gloves and become capable of manipulating mana when assuming the forms of other species. It was through these transformations that we discovered they were harnessing far more magical might in their base human forms than they should have!"
Samuel Baker also listens from his seat in the audience. His eyes widen as he hears this news.
"The Flaw was, in essence, a hard limit on the height any human could ascend." Phoebe explains. "But thanks to Jason, we have released the limiters on all of our human brothers and sisters. We've been carefully observing all of you ever since we fixed your Flaws, and there are some surprising takeaways! As mentioned before, Samuel Baker can now wield the powers of a male fairy, while Ashley McCarthy can transform into a powerful Orc at will, even without the use of her Power Glove! Others are sure to gain new, previously unseen powers as time progresses!"
Private Ashley cringes inside as she hears her deepest fear become exposed. Oh god, now every guy is going to know that I can transform into an ugly orc! I'll never get married!
Phoebe continues to speak. "We are still not entirely certain what effects will occur to humanity now that our Flaw is gone, but we are expecting an extreme uptick in metaphysical abilities. To explain it succinctly... every human now has the potential to become uplifted to the same level of power as the Wordsmiths! You are all capable of becoming mighty Heroes!"
This time, her words have a major effect. Until this moment, nobody in the crowd quite understood the significance of fixing the Flaw.
What would it do, allow them to become fairies? Orcs?
That didn't sound particularly appealing.
Sure, they might be able to wield more power on the battlefield. But if they had to turn into a whole other species, would they even be 'human' anymore?
However, now that they realize they could climb to the same peak as the Wordsmiths, this excites them greatly!
The crowd goes wild!
Who wouldn't want to be able to conjure any phenomena they desired with a single word? Who wouldn't want to ensure their own safety in a chaotic galaxy?!
Cheers roar throughout the crowd as people stand and applaud Phoebe.
"Incredible!"
"Thank you, First Wordsmith!"
"Thank you, Miss Hiro!"
"Humanity will conquer the universe!"
Phoebe smiles at everyone, waving politely as she waits for them to calm down. Before long, the roaring crowd loses some momentum, and they return to their seats.
The atmosphere of the debate changes permanently though, as people realize the Wordsmith has not been remaining idle. If humanity were to obtain just one more powerful Hero at the level of the Wordsmiths, who knows how much further their species could be uplifted? From that perspective, healing the Flaw is a tremendous merit that could never be repaid.
"As I said before," Phoebe continues, "my husband and I expect to observe many strange metaphysical phenomena occurring as time passes. If any of you spontaneously start controlling flames, or become weirdly adept at brewing tea, or anything else that seems out of the ordinary, I would advise you to seek me out or someone else in the administrative sector. We need to document all the changes so we can find out the full extent of healing Humanity's Flaw. In the coming months, Jason and I will release a detailed report on our findings so that all humans can benefit from our research."
Phoebe pauses for a moment.
She clears her throat and assumes a much more serious expression.
"There is one last side-effect of curing the Flaw." She says. "It's only hypothesized at the moment, but we believe it may be of even greater significance than granting every human the chance to become a Hero..."
The audience falls silent. Everyone listens with rapt attention.
What could be even crazier than becoming a Hero?!
...................................
Elsewhere, on Tarus II, Belial and Rosalia hurry back to the Western Hospital atop the Upper Plateau.
Within a minute, they race into the hospital and down a hallway, where they find one of the human nurses standing beside a hospital bed, while Kiari thrashes around on it, rubbing her head and massaging her chest.
"Aargh!" Kiari cries. "Hurts! Oh devils, it hurrrts!"
"Kiari!" Belial exclaims, quickly darting to her side. "Where does it hurt?! I'm here to help!"
"Everywhere..." Kiari whines. "H-head, chest, stomach, even m-my butt! It all hurts! Feels... feels like there's a parasite eating me alive! Aaaugh!"
"A parasite?" Belial asks with a frown.
Rosalia's heart skips a beat, but she says nothing, only watching anxiously as an invisible question mark seems to coalesce above Belial's head.
"I faintly remember... didn't that one Emperor back then use parasites?" Belial mumbles to herself. "He implanted them in countless demons... but he's been dead for eons. It can't be him."
She quickly shakes her head, then returns her attention to Kiari. "Here, let me inspect you with my magic..."
Belial transmits a general purpose healing pulse into Kiari's body, greatly easing her pain.
After less than ten seconds, her eyes widen in shock.
"What! How... how is this even possible?" Belial gasps.
"Did you find the problem?" Rosalia asks, suddenly feeling nervous. "It's not some sort of a parasite... is it?"
"Well. Depending on... how you define a parasite... it could be called that." Belial mutters to Rosalia.
She turns to look at Kiari, who has calmed down somewhat thanks to the pain-reducing power of Belial's magic.
"Kiari. I don't know how this is possible but... somehow..."
She pauses.
"...you've become pregnant!"
Kiari doesn't immediately react. She looks at Belial in confusion.
"What? Pregnant? No... that isn't possible. Only Broodmothers can bear children. How could I...?"
"I don't know." Belial says helplessly. "I was under the impression demonesses didn't even have wombs. Somehow, in some way... a miracle has occurred."
Kiari looks at Belial for a few seconds, and the realization dawns on her that the Emperor of Passion is telling the truth.
The impossible has happened.
Kiari's eyes turn moist. She tentatively touches her belly, a look of awe on her face.
"I'm... I'm going to be a mother?"
...................................
"Through our experimentation, we have made a shocking discovery." Phoebe says, continuing from before. "The human genome is exceptionally powerful. It is a force of nature none of us knew could exist. The Human Flaw did not merely limit our ability to wield magic... it also limited our biology itself."
Her expression becomes focused.
"The human genome is frighteningly potent. It can overpower other genomes in ways my husband and I have only begun to discover. Our research has concluded that in the event of a cross-species mating attempt, if the human should impregnate or become impregnated by a non-human... the resulting child will have a 95% chance of being human when born."
Neil's eyes flicker with shock. This news completely catches him off-guard. Never did he imagine that the Hiros were holding back such a secret!
Revealing it now completely changes the dynamic of their debate!
"That isn't all." Phoebe continues. "As you are all aware, the human species is the shortest-lived of all Sentients. Haven't you always wondered why we humans barely make it to 100 years of age while the demons and various monster species are effectively immortal, or at least live far longer than us?"
She shakes her head.
"You might be thinking that fixing the Flaw will make our species immortal. No. It will not. But we have finally uncovered the reason for why we live such short lives. And the answer is unbelievable."
Phoebe pauses to build anticipation. She looks up at the sky, as if peering at the Psion hovering in the upper stratosphere, then she looks back down at her fellow humans.
"As it turns out, the human ability to assimilate in its natural form far eclipses the ability of any other Sentient species. Not just the monsters, not just the demons, but even the Volgrim too. With the flaw fixed, many of you will sudden come into possession of vastly swifter minds, bodies that can be trained at speeds far eclipsing your previous performance, and superhuman abilities we cannot even begin to comprehend!"
Phoebe stands up straighter than before, maintaining a proud posture.
"Neil was right when he said we should become fruitful and multiply our population! What he did NOT know is that we humans no longer need to stick strictly to ourselves! I imagine that soon, VERY soon, a wave of pregnant monsters and demons will begin appearing all across Tarus II! In fact, I'd bet good money many are already pregnant as I speak!"
...
The impact of Phoebe's words this time far eclipse everything she's previously said.
All across Tarus II, various succubi, various female monsters, and even a few female goblins gasp as they hear her words.
"Pregnant?" One succubi asks. "I... I've been with several human men recently! There's no way I'm pregnant, right??"
"This is great!" Another succubus chirps. "I've always been jealous of human women for getting to raise their own kids. Maybe I'll be a mother soon myself!"
A female Harpie covers her mouth with her wings as she blushes toward her human mate. "Th-that's why, for the past few days, I've been feeling..."
...
"Jason and I had a child not long after we met." Phoebe continues. "At the time, it all felt like things moved quickly, but now I know why. It's because Heroes like Jason innately lack the Human Flaw. They are powerful and effective reproducers, and soon all the men and women of our species will be like him. Repopulation will not be a problem so long as we stick together!"
Phoebe finally reaches the conclusion of her speech.
"That is why I must reject Neil's notion that humans and demons cannot intermingle. If we want to restore humanity's greatness, then our demon allies will be able to help us more than we imagined! We must stick together as one people! Humans, monsters, and demons alike! Together, we can create a better future not just for humanity, but for the entirety of the Milky Way! We can defeat the Plague, then spread love and peace across the cosmos!"
"Now, my fellow humans... who's with me?!"
Phoebe raises her fist in the air. In unison, nearly the entire theater of people join her!
Everyone rises from their seats, and a huge cheer erupts all across human-controlled space!
Not just the humans, but the monsters and demons as well! All of them feel well-represented, and as if they have not been excluded by the First Wordsmith and his wife. Unlike Neil, who seems to only spread disorder among species, Phoebe truly seems to have everyone's interests at heart, and that continues to make her more universally likable than her opponent.
As Phoebe stands in place, waiting for the crowd to finish their cheering, Neil slowly stands up. His eyelids flicker with annoyance as he realizes he has been played by the Wordsmith's Wife. Even with Hope's help, he did not realize the full extent of what fixing the Human Flaw could accomplish.
Now, he will have to change his strategy on the fly.
He approaches the podium to stand side-by-side with Phoebe, shooting her an emotionless glance that doesn't give away his inner thoughts.
"Good speech." He mutters.
"Thank you." Phoebe says, beaming a triumphant smile back at him.
The second phase of the debate will soon begin...
Next Part

When Phoebe steps up to the podium, her heart wavers for a moment.
Neil's twisting of reality, and his manipulation of the masses has truly gone far beyond what she could accomplish.
In her eyes, only one word describes the man seated behind her.
Shameless!
It doesn't take her much effort to deduce that Neil must have decided to marry Corporal Hurent on the spot in order to obtain political brownie points. Having spoken to Jason several times over the last several weeks, she's long known about Neil and Linda's only recently budded romance, and that the two of them haven't even been particularly serious in their courtship attempts.
They aren't enjoying some youthful whirlwind romance. They've barely even held hands!
The idea that Neil would use Linda as a political prop sickens Phoebe. She feels a momentary urge to vomit out of pure disgust, but holds that desire in, stabilizing herself to face the crowd once more.
She could call Neil out, but what would that accomplish? Many people wouldn't believe her, and even if they did, it would seem like an even cheaper political ploy than what Neil did. It would only serve to harm humanity's interests in the long run by planting seeds of distrust.
Phoebe softly sighs.
She'll have to take the high road, even if he goes low.
"Well, hello again, everyone." Phoebe says slowly. "I'd like to first offer my congratulations to Neil and Linda on their engagement. I'm pleased to see that they will be starting a family together. Neil is certainly correct that humanity needs to focus on reproducing and getting our numbers up..."
She pauses for half a beat.
"...though, I do wonder about something. How are people supposed to raise a family together if our species is on a perpetual path of making enemies, dredging up ancient hatred, and otherwise doing everything we can to foment turmoil among our non-human peers? Please take it from a mother like me; raising a family is hard enough when your living situation is unstable. And losing a child can irreparably break a piece of your soul away."
Neil maintains his smile, but inside, he feels more than a little angry by her implication. After all, he knows well the pain of losing a family, even more than she does.
"Humanity needs a bigger population. A MUCH bigger population." Phoebe continues. "A hundred times bigger would still be insignificant in the scheme of the Milky Way. The Volgrim Technopaths alone would still outnumber us a hundred to one, to say nothing of the Demons! But I disagree with this idea that humans loving non-humans is a terrible thing. Who is to say that any form of love is wrong? I would rather a man lie with another man than have them lash out and try to hurt one another! Love is always good, and we humans would do well to focus more on it!"
Some of the people in the audience raise an eyebrow. To these sorts, Phoebe's speech once again comes off as naive and idealistic.
Luckily, she immediately addresses that in her next statement.
"Of course, Neil is also right about the fact that we are in a war, and thus we cannot necessarily live perfect, quaint little lives. The Plague could attack Tarus II tomorrow, and that would be a terrible tragedy, to say the least. We must be ready and willing to battle to the death with those who would cause us harm, and that fact is not in dispute."
She crosses her arms, looking somewhat annoyed.
"You know, I've noticed a certain theme underlying all of Neil's words. He speaks of Jason rather nastily, as if my husband were a buffoon who constantly fails over and over again while failing to improve as a man, and as a leader. I take offense to this implication because in a roundabout way, it implies I am stupid for believing in him. Nothing could be further from the truth!"
"Jason has been hard at work of late. He has come up with several incredible new forms of technology, warfare tactics, and holistic improvements to our species that we haven't told you all about yet. He has been testing them for viability, and many appear to be quite promising."
Phoebe looks at various random people in the crowd, holding her gaze on each one for a second or two before moving on. This effect makes it seem as if she is looking at specific individuals, making them feel special.
"Humanity is Flawed..." Phoebe says slowly, causing the hairs to stand up on the back of Neil's neck. "That has been the case since the Archangel Uzziel first uplifted us from the DNA of our simian ancestors. From the very beginning, she placed invisible shackles on our power at the behest of Archangel Raphael..."
Dammit! Neil thinks. She waited until she had the final retort to bring out the information about the Flaw! I thought she might not even mention it publicly for fear of the news getting out! Are she and Jason truly so unafraid of our enemies knowing all of our advancements?!
While Neil rages internally, Phoebe continues.
"The Human Flaw is a mysterious condition. Jason and I were uncertain of the effects that would occur if we cleansed it, and we didn't want to get anyone's hope's up in the event that doing so didn't work. But, I assure you, fixing Humanity's Flaw HAS resulted in an incredible benefit to our species. We're still uncovering all the after-effects, but so far the results have been nothing short of wondrous!"
...
Inside the Changeling Bunker, hidden deep beneath the Fortress of Retribution's upper plateau.
A handful of Changelings hurriedly speak into communication devices as they watch the broadcast. One of those happens to be the Sixth-Class Settler, Informer Jin, who has taken command of the situation ever since their superior Changeling officer's disappearance. After Mephisto's attack on Tarus II, Operative Duugo disappeared, and nobody knows where they went.
Jin hurriedly collects all the information they can find about the Human Flaw as they prepare to transmit a data burst to Volgarius, synchronized with the random fluctuations in Tarus II's atmospheric static so nobody will be the wiser.
Just before Jin is ready to transmit, a female voice speaks in his head.
[Operative Jin. I have already informed the Founders of this matter.]
Jin sits up slightly in their chair. They recognize the voice as belonging to the High Psion known as Creator Demila.
You have? Jin thinks, allowing their mind to be read.
[Yes. Do not risk a data burst needlessly. I am observing Tarus II from a hundred kilometers above the upper atmosphere. I have known about the Human Flaw for longer than you can imagine, as well as the Wordsmith's repairing of it some time ago. I am in talks with the Founders as to what measures we should take to mitigate the situation.]
This one contemplates and comprehends. Jin acknowledges, lowering their hands as they decide to go along with what Demila says. As the highest ranking Volgrim in the area, she is naturally to be deferred to on matters such as these.
[Delete that log you were going to make as well.] Demila adds. [It would be best if we do not leave any traces for the humans to find. We are not certain if and when they might uncover your base of operations.]
A sensible plan. This one will do as you say. Jin says, before reaching into the files and deleting Phoebe's statements about the Human Flaw.
Satisfied, Demila retracts her Psionic Sense.
She remains levitating in the Void while listening to the speech on the planet below, an expression of worry playing upon her face.
[This is a dangerous game.] Demila says to herself. [It could cost the Volgrim Empire dearly...]
The voice of Desire whispers seductively inside her mind.
Every gamble is dangerous, Demila dearest. Desire says. If you want to climb to the peak of power, you have to be willing to break a few rules. Otherwise, with your... lacking foundation... you will never achieve it.
Demila glowers at that thought. [If I fail to ascend after paying this price, that would be truly miserable.]
...
Phoebe continues her speech, growing more excited as she speaks.
"Fixing the Human Flaw is more significant than you all know! We first discovered that it was repairable as a result of our brave men and women who don T-REX suits and protect our civilization every day. Several amazing individuals, such as Lieutenant Samuel Baker, Private Ashley McCarthy, and others have worn the Power Gloves and become capable of manipulating mana when assuming the forms of other species. It was through these transformations that we discovered they were harnessing far more magical might in their base human forms than they should have!"
Samuel Baker also listens from his seat in the audience. His eyes widen as he hears this news.
"The Flaw was, in essence, a hard limit on the height any human could ascend." Phoebe explains. "But thanks to Jason, we have released the limiters on all of our human brothers and sisters. We've been carefully observing all of you ever since we fixed your Flaws, and there are some surprising takeaways! As mentioned before, Samuel Baker can now wield the powers of a male fairy, while Ashley McCarthy can transform into a powerful Orc at will, even without the use of her Power Glove! Others are sure to gain new, previously unseen powers as time progresses!"
Private Ashley cringes inside as she hears her deepest fear become exposed. Oh god, now every guy is going to know that I can transform into an ugly orc! I'll never get married!
Phoebe continues to speak. "We are still not entirely certain what effects will occur to humanity now that our Flaw is gone, but we are expecting an extreme uptick in metaphysical abilities. To explain it succinctly... every human now has the potential to become uplifted to the same level of power as the Wordsmiths! You are all capable of becoming mighty Heroes!"
This time, her words have a major effect. Until this moment, nobody in the crowd quite understood the significance of fixing the Flaw.
What would it do, allow them to become fairies? Orcs?
That didn't sound particularly appealing.
Sure, they might be able to wield more power on the battlefield. But if they had to turn into a whole other species, would they even be 'human' anymore?
However, now that they realize they could climb to the same peak as the Wordsmiths, this excites them greatly!
The crowd goes wild!
Who wouldn't want to be able to conjure any phenomena they desired with a single word? Who wouldn't want to ensure their own safety in a chaotic galaxy?!
Cheers roar throughout the crowd as people stand and applaud Phoebe.
"Incredible!"
"Thank you, First Wordsmith!"
"Thank you, Miss Hiro!"
"Humanity will conquer the universe!"
Phoebe smiles at everyone, waving politely as she waits for them to calm down. Before long, the roaring crowd loses some momentum, and they return to their seats.
The atmosphere of the debate changes permanently though, as people realize the Wordsmith has not been remaining idle. If humanity were to obtain just one more powerful Hero at the level of the Wordsmiths, who knows how much further their species could be uplifted? From that perspective, healing the Flaw is a tremendous merit that could never be repaid.
"As I said before," Phoebe continues, "my husband and I expect to observe many strange metaphysical phenomena occurring as time passes. If any of you spontaneously start controlling flames, or become weirdly adept at brewing tea, or anything else that seems out of the ordinary, I would advise you to seek me out or someone else in the administrative sector. We need to document all the changes so we can find out the full extent of healing Humanity's Flaw. In the coming months, Jason and I will release a detailed report on our findings so that all humans can benefit from our research."
Phoebe pauses for a moment.
She clears her throat and assumes a much more serious expression.
"There is one last side-effect of curing the Flaw." She says. "It's only hypothesized at the moment, but we believe it may be of even greater significance than granting every human the chance to become a Hero..."
The audience falls silent. Everyone listens with rapt attention.
What could be even crazier than becoming a Hero?!
...................................
Elsewhere, on Tarus II, Belial and Rosalia hurry back to the Western Hospital atop the Upper Plateau.
Within a minute, they race into the hospital and down a hallway, where they find one of the human nurses standing beside a hospital bed, while Kiari thrashes around on it, rubbing her head and massaging her chest.
"Aargh!" Kiari cries. "Hurts! Oh devils, it hurrrts!"
"Kiari!" Belial exclaims, quickly darting to her side. "Where does it hurt?! I'm here to help!"
"Everywhere..." Kiari whines. "H-head, chest, stomach, even m-my butt! It all hurts! Feels... feels like there's a parasite eating me alive! Aaaugh!"
"A parasite?" Belial asks with a frown.
Rosalia's heart skips a beat, but she says nothing, only watching anxiously as an invisible question mark seems to coalesce above Belial's head.
"I faintly remember... didn't that one Emperor back then use parasites?" Belial mumbles to herself. "He implanted them in countless demons... but he's been dead for eons. It can't be him."
She quickly shakes her head, then returns her attention to Kiari. "Here, let me inspect you with my magic..."
Belial transmits a general purpose healing pulse into Kiari's body, greatly easing her pain.
After less than ten seconds, her eyes widen in shock.
"What! How... how is this even possible?" Belial gasps.
"Did you find the problem?" Rosalia asks, suddenly feeling nervous. "It's not some sort of a parasite... is it?"
"Well. Depending on... how you define a parasite... it could be called that." Belial mutters to Rosalia.
She turns to look at Kiari, who has calmed down somewhat thanks to the pain-reducing power of Belial's magic.
"Kiari. I don't know how this is possible but... somehow..."
She pauses.
"...you've become pregnant!"
Kiari doesn't immediately react. She looks at Belial in confusion.
"What? Pregnant? No... that isn't possible. Only Broodmothers can bear children. How could I...?"
"I don't know." Belial says helplessly. "I was under the impression demonesses didn't even have wombs. Somehow, in some way... a miracle has occurred."
Kiari looks at Belial for a few seconds, and the realization dawns on her that the Emperor of Passion is telling the truth.
The impossible has happened.
Kiari's eyes turn moist. She tentatively touches her belly, a look of awe on her face.
"I'm... I'm going to be a mother?"
...................................
"Through our experimentation, we have made a shocking discovery." Phoebe says, continuing from before. "The human genome is exceptionally powerful. It is a force of nature none of us knew could exist. The Human Flaw did not merely limit our ability to wield magic... it also limited our biology itself."
Her expression becomes focused.
"The human genome is frighteningly potent. It can overpower other genomes in ways my husband and I have only begun to discover. Our research has concluded that in the event of a cross-species mating attempt, if the human should impregnate or become impregnated by a non-human... the resulting child will have a 95% chance of being human when born."
Neil's eyes flicker with shock. This news completely catches him off-guard. Never did he imagine that the Hiros were holding back such a secret!
Revealing it now completely changes the dynamic of their debate!
"That isn't all." Phoebe continues. "As you are all aware, the human species is the shortest-lived of all Sentients. Haven't you always wondered why we humans barely make it to 100 years of age while the demons and various monster species are effectively immortal, or at least live far longer than us?"
She shakes her head.
"You might be thinking that fixing the Flaw will make our species immortal. No. It will not. But we have finally uncovered the reason for why we live such short lives. And the answer is unbelievable."
Phoebe pauses to build anticipation. She looks up at the sky, as if peering at the Psion hovering in the upper stratosphere, then she looks back down at her fellow humans.
"As it turns out, the human ability to assimilate in its natural form far eclipses the ability of any other Sentient species. Not just the monsters, not just the demons, but even the Volgrim too. With the flaw fixed, many of you will sudden come into possession of vastly swifter minds, bodies that can be trained at speeds far eclipsing your previous performance, and superhuman abilities we cannot even begin to comprehend!"
Phoebe stands up straighter than before, maintaining a proud posture.
"Neil was right when he said we should become fruitful and multiply our population! What he did NOT know is that we humans no longer need to stick strictly to ourselves! I imagine that soon, VERY soon, a wave of pregnant monsters and demons will begin appearing all across Tarus II! In fact, I'd bet good money many are already pregnant as I speak!"
...
The impact of Phoebe's words this time far eclipse everything she's previously said.
All across Tarus II, various succubi, various female monsters, and even a few female goblins gasp as they hear her words.
"Pregnant?" One succubi asks. "I... I've been with several human men recently! There's no way I'm pregnant, right??"
"This is great!" Another succubus chirps. "I've always been jealous of human women for getting to raise their own kids. Maybe I'll be a mother soon myself!"
A female Harpie covers her mouth with her wings as she blushes toward her human mate. "Th-that's why, for the past few days, I've been feeling..."
...
"Jason and I had a child not long after we met." Phoebe continues. "At the time, it all felt like things moved quickly, but now I know why. It's because Heroes like Jason innately lack the Human Flaw. They are powerful and effective reproducers, and soon all the men and women of our species will be like him. Repopulation will not be a problem so long as we stick together!"
Phoebe finally reaches the conclusion of her speech.
"That is why I must reject Neil's notion that humans and demons cannot intermingle. If we want to restore humanity's greatness, then our demon allies will be able to help us more than we imagined! We must stick together as one people! Humans, monsters, and demons alike! Together, we can create a better future not just for humanity, but for the entirety of the Milky Way! We can defeat the Plague, then spread love and peace across the cosmos!"
"Now, my fellow humans... who's with me?!"
Phoebe raises her fist in the air. In unison, nearly the entire theater of people join her!
Everyone rises from their seats, and a huge cheer erupts all across human-controlled space!
Not just the humans, but the monsters and demons as well! All of them feel well-represented, and as if they have not been excluded by the First Wordsmith and his wife. Unlike Neil, who seems to only spread disorder among species, Phoebe truly seems to have everyone's interests at heart, and that continues to make her more universally likable than her opponent.
As Phoebe stands in place, waiting for the crowd to finish their cheering, Neil slowly stands up. His eyelids flicker with annoyance as he realizes he has been played by the Wordsmith's Wife. Even with Hope's help, he did not realize the full extent of what fixing the Human Flaw could accomplish.
Now, he will have to change his strategy on the fly.
He approaches the podium to stand side-by-side with Phoebe, shooting her an emotionless glance that doesn't give away his inner thoughts.
"Good speech." He mutters.
"Thank you." Phoebe says, beaming a triumphant smile back at him.
The second phase of the debate will soon begin...

If Rachel even thought about thinking for once about the implications of her comic she'd realize how fucked up and terrifying it is if it was real. Like Hera basically pawning off her niece to her affair partner when he's literally old enough to be her grandpa a hundred times over???? And without even considering her own sister who nursed her back to health after being RIPPED IN TWO??? And it basically being based in racism and eugenics because the only reason Hera chooses Persephone over Minthe to be with Hades is because Persephone is a goddess??? Not because of her own merits or personality or talents (which she has none). Like the only reason people support their relationship is because they're both gods.

This subreddit is pretty dead, but I want to share.
I recently finished a year-long game of Continuum, covering around twenty play sessions. I was a player in this group, and the GM or other players might chime in, but I wanted to talk about my group’s experiences and my thoughts about the game.
We weren’t quite playing the game according to the rules, but the differences weren’t super severe. For the sake of sanity, we reduced the leveling requirements considerably, both for traditional learning and instant skilling. This contributed to how insane things got, but it didn’t make or break anything (except for psychic powers- without easier stat XP gain, we wouldn’t have ever had access to clairvoyance, telepathy, or pyrokinesis).
The modified XP system that we used was that if you fill in 10 “clocks” you level a skill, the instant skilling times are for one competency level, and that filling in 10 small clocks levels a stat as well.
Tips and Tricks:
Our group figured out some horrible things. In approximate order of introduction:

1. Roleplaying – Time Combat gets a lot easier (and harder) when you don’t abstract it out.
   
2. The Internet – Fruning and oracling is nearly impossible at low span, but you can just google stuff. This can be incredibly helpful for time combat.
   
3. Booze Spanning – If you get spanners drunk, it becomes considerably more dangerous for them to span up or down, but it doesn’t block level spans. Still useful.
   
4. Fentanyl Dart – Seeking to capture some targets alive, we realized that using a strong drug could reliably knock people out, if we then applied first aid. It didn’t let us interrogate people, but it did allow for nonlethal attacks, at least for a while (eventually, the GM started introducing immune characters to nerf this).
   
5. Starfishing – If you want to travel a long distance, outside your span range, including over water, you can simply do it one bit at a time. The original idea was to lay on your back in the ‘starfish float’ position and then span towards your destination as fast as possible, floating in the water in between, but this isn’t needed. You can simply span vertically upwards into the sky and then span towards your destination, making sure to span vertically upwards to cancel your falling between spans. If you’re worried about being seen, I would recommend carrying a piece of diffractive material, which will camouflage you against the sky, or flying above visual range.
   
6. Hypnosis – Hypnosis is incredibly useful for post-misadventure cleanup, since you can use it to clean up the memories of witnesses. It can also be used more directly, but it’s not very effective against high-level spanner enemies.
   
7. Span Bombing – If your GM allows you to span with the fluids surrounding you (the book’s guidance is contradictory, we decided), then you can span with a room’s worth of air. Air masses approximately 1.25 kg/m^3 at sea level, so you can calculate the maximum size of room that you can span with the air in. When you span into wherever you’re going you instantly double the air pressure, causing the room to explode. The GM vetoed this one and it seems to be against at least the spirit of the rules.
   
8. De-timing Time Combat – Time Combat becomes considerably simpler and easier if you immediately kill the opposing combatant (i.e. shoot them before they can span out).
   
9. Massive Overkill – In conjunction with step 8, it is often important to kill your enemy in one stage of combat. This becomes trivial once you hit Quick 5+ and a rating in a firearm of 10 or greater (this is actually surprisingly easy to get- if you’re at Mind 7, the minimum for psychic powers, then you only need a rating of Master) then you can reliably do at least 1 lethal IP per person per stage, but as high as 7 if using assault rifles. Similarly, body + high martial arts skill can be absolutely deadly. If the environment permits it, the use of explosives, flamethrowers, and other AOE weapons can be extremely useful, especially when fighting darters.
   
10. Using Vehicles – Want to move something too heavy for your span? Just drive! Or fly!
    
11. Clairvoyance Spam – Clairvoyance is the first really, really broken trick. By spamming clairvoyance, you can avoid traps and unexpected enemy encounters. It can also be used to find enemies fleeing from combat.
    
12. Pyrokinesis – Pyrokinesis is really, really strong. At mind 8, you get to Journeyman and can manipulate 8 cubic feet of space, changing the temperature by 1 degree Celsius per second. With this, you can kill any baseline human being, or an entire room of human beings, in about 4 seconds (2 stages), by raising the temperature of their brain to lethal levels AND you can lower body temperature to nonfatally knock people unconscious. Furthermore, if you have time, you can use this to create a powerful bomb, by using a pressure resistant container full of water and heating up the water to an extreme temperature (i.e. plasma) over the course of a few hours while holding the container temperature constant. Also, at this level, you can only fail on a blunder. With grandmaster pyrokinesis, you are a god of destruction and can instantly boil anyone that pisses you off.
    
13. Just Breaking Their Neck – Our party had a character who was heavily spec’d out for martial arts, and we realized that since his body was still average, he would have to have a good mastery of pressure points and technique. The logical implication, permitted by our GM, is that with a good roll he could nonlethally break the neck of an enemy. Per the GM section, an intact spine is needed for spanning, which provides another way to contain spanners.
    
14. Fentanyl Dart 2, Polonium Boogaloo – If you’re worried about someone spanning, we realized that injecting a strong radiation emitter (we went with polonium) into your target would inflict frag on span. Of course, you need to get polonium, which opens you up to a lot of frag later on. Also, we weren’t sure if you would be fragged from spanning with polonium carried in a lead-lined container (the book was unclear on it).
    
15. Superconducting Frag Machine – Strong EM fields can cause frag (and it’s a pain in the ass to have fixed!), so using superconducting tape cooled with liquid nitrogen (which can be purchased online IRL) lets you cause frag to anyone who spans in a certain area. We didn’t get around to it, but we talked about using it to contain spanners (with appropriate physical restraints).
    
16. The Almighty Slipshank – Warning: Read no further if you are a player and don’t want to be tempted with evil powers. >! I’m serious, this is horrible and it makes nearly anything trivial if you’re willing to pay the price.!< A careful reading of the Slipshank rules says that you can “find any known object to be wherever [you] [want] it at the Level [you’re] currently at.” This is horribly broken. In one example of this, a fight was ended summarily by slipshanking an explosive device under the enemy combatant’s feet- in the process of exploding. This is because there are no rules about the disposition of a slipshanked object, and logically you could set up a device to explode when you place it, knowing the time you want it to explode. This is simply rules-as-written and can be used to do some absurd things, as will be discussed later.
    

The Story (Spoilers Ahead!):
I was invited to the Continuum game by a friend of mine, who I was in a different campaign with. Initially, I felt like it wouldn’t be possible, but when I found out it was a game of Continuum I made time.
My character was Jacob T. Schweikert, who I was setting up as a lovable rogue, a thief (cat burglary style) and electrician’s apprentice from 2006. My friend played as Beau Dixon, a schoolteacher who was very smart but physically inept. We had an intentional self-insert (with a good faith attempt to stat out the character accurately) with Jack and then a less experienced player created Rowan, who was an arms dealer and ex-special forces character.
My thought at the beginning was that we were going to be a pretty balanced party, with different archetypes and niches. It didn’t quite work out like that.
The campaign started in 2021, in Cincinnati, Ohio, just after we were Invited to Dance and woke up at a transchronal spanner party, during the COVID-19 pandemic (taking advantage of the empty buildings). It was the four of us, and a man from the 70s named Bart, who showed up in disco garb.
We relaxed, got some (nonalcoholic) drinks, and tried to enjoy the party and introduce ourselves, but then, there was a commotion outside. Everyone ran out, and saw an older version of Bart span in, panicking, while Rowan spanned in and shot him in the head.
The Bart that was there with us immediately freaked out and spanned away, leaving us all rather confused. We tried to gather some information, and there was a cool little bit where the bartending was being collectively done by a bunch of geminis of the bartender, who was just called “Bar Tender”.
We saw a few interesting faces, including an apparent neanderthal spanner and a Joan of Arc Gemini who showed up to investigate the shooting. There was also a concert going on, with famous artists collected from across time. The neaderthal told us to go backstage, so we did, and we saw Bart show up, shoot at the stagehands, and chop ones’ hand off, and when we investigated the body from earlier we found this strange bracelet device, along with plans for it.
After picking it up, a bunch of Exalted rolled up and got all mad about us having it, and basically told us that it was our mess, giving us the bracelet back. Apparently, it was a high power artifact that lets you span with levelers, and if we misused it we were promised a personal-style fragging out.
Then, we were dumped in 1992 by one of the Exalted, and Jacob took a point of frag. After contemplating as a party, we realized that Jacob’s family had a breakin that day, and nobody was hurt, so we broke into his child self’s house to see what was going on.
One trick I liked here is that since we were dumped in 1992 with no prep, there were a lot of difficulties that were fun to work around. We couldn’t really spend money, use our IDs, or anything, and most of the characters weren’t even born yet!
Turns out, there was this creepy guy in the front yard with a van, so we kicked his ass and drove away with him, while staging the house like Jacob remembered it being. We also did some spanner shenanigans to rob a liquor store and got the dude absolutely wasted, to prevent him from spanning out (first goofy trick!). Turns out, Bart had been breaking convicted criminals out of prison who were still imprisoned in the consensus timeline, so we’d have to return them to prison.
We realized that we’d probably have to time combat Bart, so we got in touch with the local corner, which, as it turns out, was our corner, located out of Generic Apartment Complex (its literal name). The man in charge was called Doug, the Question Man, and he was a complete jackass who would span with people by kicking them in the shins. A fun character! We also got some basic supplies, and Jacob got his hands on a copy of Continuum™. Besides the PCs, there was another person in the corner, a woman named Angelique, a 6’6” or so amazon who was a middle Aquarian from some time in the future, and who was on “house arrest” for unknown reasons. The party then realized that being an early/cusp Aquarian is the worst of all worlds, since the non-aquarians hate you for being an aquarian, and the “real” aquarians hate you for not being psychic.
Jack got some information on Bart using “research”, which I’m pretty sure was using the abstract time combat mechanics. Turns out, he just spanned in, grabbed people, and spanned out with them, for 5 prisoners total. Apparently they worked together after relesaae, and they were all held in solitary confinement, so we only know what happened because Bart spanned in and out of the hall a bunch.
We oracle the prison, and we found blueprints and got the names of the prisoners along with the security systems, with motion and hourly IR sensor checks. Turns out, one prisoner was ONLY known as Prisoner #5, and there were no photos of him, which was ominous. We spent some time looking into the prisoners more, and got armed up, and went in.
We spanned directly into Prisoner #5’s cell, between the IR checks. He wasn’t there, so we were looking around, everybody was super paranoid.
Turns out, he was on the ceiling, wearing one of those creepy “comedy” masks. He jumped on us and turned out to be a serious death machine, easily thrashing everybody in the party. We realized that we had to move him out to avoid running into Bart while fighting him, so we spanned to the corner and talked to Doug, who was like “oh god oh fuck” and had us bring Prisoner #5 to him using the Atlantean bracelet. Then, he gave the override code: one. As it turns out, Prisoner #5 was some sort of weird future android, and he would span to his cell when it was safe.
Then, Bart pulled up, and we kicked his ass. This should have caused frag and forced us to go to a whole bunch of trouble, but the GM was new at running the system so we didn’t see the issue. The day was saved!
Then, because we beat up Bart, we kept him sedated and went with him to Doug, who helped us artificially up-age him with the bracelet, and then we put the bracelet on him and spanned to the party. There, the bartender revealed himself to actually be “Bart Ender”, and woke him up and sent him to die.
We all went back to our lives for a while, doing the cover story thing. Jacob graduated from electrician’s apprentice to a full electrician and things went well. The cover story thing never quite made sense for Rowan, since he was a spec ops supersoldier arms dealer or something, but you know, we did non-Continuum character stuff.
Then, we got a letter in the corner, with coordinates, which were for an apparently uninhabited island in the Pacific.
I proposed that the group starfish to Hawaii, and this led to extreme controversy. Everybody thought the idea was ridiculous, which is fair. Instead, our characters flow commercial. In the airport, we saw three people following us.
There were two men, who were doing their best to look inconspicuous wearing 1800s clothes through an airport, and a woman in a suit, and she actually clocked one of Jacob’s geminis in the airport, so we realized we’d have to clean that up. We also investigated the two Victorians, who were named Henry Holmes and James Watson, and found out the woman was FBI Agent Enola Pistole which is about my favorite name ever.
Once we got to Hawaii, we bought a boat, but then we realized that it had been sabotaged before we were ready to depart. We stocked up on gear (lots of guns, four large empty crates that we left unguarded for a while. We investigated the boat, and found out that Watson was the one who sabotaged the boat, and agent Pistole came up to us and tried to interrogate us, but we boated away before she got around to it.
As it turned out, the island wasn’t anything like the Google Earth pictures, it was aa whole archipelago, with a big volcano, too. Most islands were barren, but one had trees, and we saw a fire on the beach and some guys in SWAT gear. They tried to take us prisoner, but we knocked them out. I think that might have been the first use of the fentanyl dart but it might have been more “manual”. Interestingly, their uniforms had an eye of providence logo, which we thought was weird.
Going onto the island, there was a primitive village, and there was a kid and a samurai. We tried to quietly knock out the kid but he ran for the guards, and the samurai started fighting us, along with a whole bunch of people who started running through the village and fleeing the scene.
The samurai was a darter, so he would dodge bullets and stuff, which was a pretty cool fight. In the end, we lobbed a grenade at him and that did the trick. Beau actually got downed in the process, so we brought him back to the ship, and put him in a closed room. Then, a gemini occurred.
Beau’s elder arrived, and stabilized the junior (a whole new kind of self-care), before joining the adventure. The time loop was that after Beau recovered in Hawaii, he went back, learned medicine, stowed away aboard the ship to go to Hawaii, and then joined the adventure.
There were a few other fights, and we made our way to a cave in the center. The village was still in chaos, but it seemed like they were guarding the cave.
Naturally, Jacob knew what to do. He spanned back to the ship, and slipshanked a flamethrower. Then, he walked back, and cleared out the cave.
I didn’t realize this at the time, but the cave was actually full of defenseless civilians. This is where the evil part of the campaign began, assuming we didn’t kill the child earlier (I might be misremembering). So Jacob had a kill count in the dozens.
Investigating the cave, we found a mysterious device, and we called Doug about it. He told us to smash it, and then when we did, the Continuum showed up in FORCE. Hundreds of spanners showed up and spanned out with the different people on the island, clearing things out. The party was commended for our good work while Beau had a mental breakdown about all the dead kids.
We went back to Hawaii and Agent Pistole had questions for us. We knocked her out and gave her the extraordinary rendition treatment, bringing her out to sea. Apparently she had an anonymous tip involving a photo from the future and an old woman, involving a “murder hotel” in Cincinnati. She was also shocked to see Jacob, who was apparently a missing person since the early 2000s, somehow, which meant that his yet was going to get interesting.
The Holmes thing was apparently a copycat of the H. H. Holmes murder castle- at least from her point of view. As it turns out, our Holmes was the original guy, too, pulled into the future.
To deal with the Agent Pistole situation, we contacted Angelique, who rolled up in a sportscar. Being an aquarian, she hypnotized Agent Pistole, and that was when I realized that hypnosis is actually stupid OP.
To deal with the Holmes/Watson problem we jumped Watson when he was sabotaging the boat, hit him with the fent dart, and then dragged him to some random shed to interrogate him after boozing him up. He had a creepy vintage surgical set, and said he was taking orders from someone in a group called the Order of the Hourglass. Then, he tried to span out, vanishing for a moment before reapparing and splitting into two parts, before those parts caught on fire.
After that, we went back to Cincinnati to investigate the murder hotel ourselves. It was in a strange mixed-use building, with a McDonalds and stuff, and seemed medium-nice. We considered renting a room, but then we realized that Holmes was running the counter.
We hit him with the ketamine dart and he went down, and a gunfight broke out. Some civilians were killed by Rowan. We assumed that Holmes was down for the count, but then, he was fine again- a new trick by the GM to nerf the fent dart. Then, he hid under his desk, and disappeared, leaving his clothes behind.
After a minute of confusion, we realized that he had spanned down, under the building. There was a strange maze of passages down there, and he wasn’t anywhere to be seen. Clearly, his span range wasn’t very good, but he was hiding somewhere in the maze.
But we realized that we could simultaneously search every space at once, by spanning down. So Jacob immediately found him running for an exit, buck naked, and we gunned him down. Watson also showed up, and revealed himself to be Jack the Ripper. The idea of a killed antagonist showing up again isn’t that shocking, but we weren’t totally sure what to do about him. We ended up knocking him out and dragging him outside, before setting the building on fire and leaving him.
The next session, we were in the corner, and there was an explosion that demolished a high-rise downtown, and we all took a point of frag. After investigating, we found that a janitor had been persuaded to place a bomb in the building. We got the bomb, and it turned out to be covered in a bunch of gear that we’d used, including darts, bullets, a grenade, and some dynamite (which belonged to Doug). We replaced it with a bomb that didn’t include any of our personal equipment, and found out that the janitor was given the device at the local airport.
So we went there, and of course, it was Bart. By this point in the campaign, our party’s appearance was enough to give Bart a panic attack, and we dragged him into a bathroom to talk to him. He basically said that we told him to set it up, which confused us, and he said that he wasn’t going to cause us any frag and spanned away.
We realized that Bart was probably hiding in one of the two remaining crates aboard the ship (there were a lot of jokes about that). We went there, gave him the stuff to make the bomb (which we got from different places), and then threatened to frag him out if he didn’t set up the bomb, so it all worked out.
Jack, who started with a rank in dreaming, had an ominous dream where he saw some ominous shit. Specifically, a gigantic crack splitting open the night sky. This was considered to be “very bad”.
Jacob got a letter from a hospital, addressed to his fake ID. Turns out, it was Prisoner #5, who had gone into a coma in prison. He was in the hospital, and Jacob was the emergency contact.
So we pulled up, feeling very paranoid about the whole thing. Turns out, Prisoner #5 just wanted to talk, and we spoke with him. The nurses were VERY freaked out, because the comedy mask thing was fused to his face on the skeletal level, but other than that he appears perfectly human, which was freaky.
Prisoner $5 explained that some bad shit was going to go down, and that his usual job was to kill people who weren’t supposed to exist- those born because of time manipulation. The people on the island were like that, too. He also said that some things were going to happen, and eventually we’d need to fight him because he would be subverted, but he said that whatever he did, his actions would never cause frag.
He also told us to investigate a company called Hourglass Inc., a shipping company, and we were told to leave before he made his escape.
Hourglass Inc. turned out to be a shipping company, with headquarters in town, so we broke in. We were all keyed up, but the place was totally empty, except for a single security guard (hit him with the fent dart) and the boss, who was just working in his office.
We pulled up on the boss and figured that we should talk to him before we fight him. He seemed like he didn’t know what was going on, and started panicking, so we tried to talk to him.
Then boom, he hits Jacob with a magic wand type vessel, doing a whole bunch of damage. He’s also able to stop us from shooting at him when he looks at us. We’re freaking out, but Beau’s player has an idea, and says everyone should leave.
Turns out, Beau was carrying a bandolier of grenades, and talks for a while, before spanning away. Leaving a whole pile of grenades behind, cooked and ready to blow.
The office is full of meat paste, along with the magic wand vessel and a sonichu medallion medallion-shaped vessel of cursed energies that makes him impossible to target when he concentrates. Beau puts on the medallion and blacks out briefly, with voices speaking to him and walking in the desert, and we decide it’s best to give it to the Quickers, who pull up and put it in Cold Storage, along with the wand.
I was concerned that he faked his own death, so Jacob spanned back down and shot Machiavelli through the head the moment after Beau spanned out, before he had the chance to disappear. The GM confirmed that Machiavelli was going to fake his death, so chalk a win up for paranoia.
From documents we found at Hourglass, Inc. we knew that the island was a lot more serious, but we came up with a plan. Using our “One Big Score” money, we bought an An-26, hazmat suits, and chemical weapons, along with nerve agent treatments, skydiving equipment, and guns.
Our plan was to fly over from Greenland, since the island was in the Atlantic, after bribing an airfield to let us fly out. Around this time, Beau developed clairvoyance, which proved to be OP. A spanner showed up on the wing, and we ended up grabbing him and defusing a bomb he planted, and the guy was carrying a shitload of knives and a blade fan, with order of the hourglass tattoos, too. Turns out, he was from Shogunate-era Japan. He told us that they had hostages, and ended up spanning away, which was fine.
It was fine, because we dispersed nerve gas over the island and then parachuted in, wearing hazmat suits and dosed up to the gills with BCHE in case we ended up getting hurt.
Searching the island, we found three buildings which were protected against nerve agents, and we broke in, fighting our way through. Once your characters have instant skilled up to master in firearms, the combat becomes really easy, so we were just powering through these guys.
We found strange devices, and a room with clerks (gave them an “antidote”- in truth, nerve agents do have treatment regimens but they won’t save your life on their own). There was a comms array on the roof, which Jack shut down and took the computer for, and there was a particle accelerator in the basement and a span jammer. We destroyed the span jammer, but this time, the Continuum didn’t show up. And worse, it was guarded by a man with a spear, who was teleporting all over the place. He ended up getting killed, but Jacob had a spear in his side, so he spanned out to the ocean since he was very close to death, and floated there, waiting for the end of the fight and calling for backup.
Meanwhile, the spear guy was actually still fighting, in a huge swarm of geminis, and running around in the nerve gas cloud without any protective gear. Shitloads of his geminis were dying, but he just kept going, ignoring the frag. Not sure about the mechanics of that, but it was a cool scene. The rest of the party ran underground to avoid fighting him, and they found the other span jammer, guarded by Machiavelli!
When confronted, he said that he had been killed, and killing him there would lead to second death, but we didn’t believe it, since we thought he had been replaced by a body double. So we killed him, causing a second death and giving us all hella frag. But the span jammer went down, and the Continuum showed up again, and this time along with a single Inheritor ship, doing who knows what. All the survivors were spanned out, and it turns out that the hostage thing was just a bluff. The frag from the second death was also suddenly resolved, and we got a first-edition copy of The Prince for our trouble. The Inheritors left after grabbing all the really weird tech, but also endowed us with span two.
Due to player absence, we retconned that Beau had been KO’d by a falling coconut on landing (with a body of two, it was plausible). He had bizarre dreams of stars moving in the sky, being stalked by semi-human figures, and explosions. Very ominous. Very scorpiod.
We searched the island, and found some stuff, but nothing super significant.
Then, we realized that we could get more information about what was going on by investigating the spooky dream. We all instant skilled dreamsharing, and we went down. Then, we did some fuckery , and Beau dreamshared his junior, unconscious self, getting access to the dream, letting us double check that they were, in fact, scorpiods.
As a little diversion, we then had to pay off our debt to the moneychangers for the whole plane-nerve agent thing. They asked us to do a favor, intimidating some IRS agents that were involved in moneychanger laundering schemes and thinking of betraying them.
It was in DC, so we flew over using the starfish method. It was fun, since we were like “yeah we’ve killed hundreds of people, we know where you live,” yada yada. Also one of the guys in the IRS asked us to kill his coworker for being a bad person, and the Continuum agreed that she was so horrible that we had to do it, and she really was that horrible. So we killed her.
At span 2, it was about time for Jacob to fake his death, so we wrapped that up to avoid future confusion about the missing persons thing. Then, the whole party got an invite to Foxhorn, and we decided to call our corner “The Waffle House”. And picked up a waffle maker.
Of course, the corner was always foxhorn, an we got some welcome gifts (defusal kit, mind reading machine, scannesyrxis). The mind reading machine was a HUGE benefit for our party, since it meant that we went from “shoot first, ask questions of the junior” to “shoot first, ream the dead body with the mind scanner”.
Another ominous dream happened, this time about a child crying in a hospital, while shadowy figures stands around, Beau also dreamed of being in a desert, watched by 7 figures…
We realized that we could find out more by investigating the vessel dream, so we went back in time and dreamshared with Beau while he was blacked out. Turns out, the vessel was mae from a boy named David, and he dreams of wandering in the desert. He’s from another time, and doesn’t know of any other part of history. Said some ominous shit about “the hour approaches” and “the door will open”.
Jack and Beau investigated Machiavelli’s office, did some stuff that Jacob wasn’t told about (due to his rather questionable ethics), and Angelique taught Jacob hypnosis in exchange for mind wiping some random preteen girl (he didn’t ask questions). At this point, Jacob was being characterized as a dangerous maniac and psycho.
Turns out, there was some dangerous kid that Angelique was holding in a containment field in an abandoned warehouse. She was a crasher, and Beau was trying to cheer her up with dreamsharing, which didn’t work at all. Some conversation involving the kid also confirmed that a scorpiod king was involved, which had us all spooked.
Jacob was called in after a bunch of smoke grenades showed up, so he pulled up in HAZMAT and with a gun. Turns out, warehouse is being attached by some ninja looking individual, and they’re trying to shut down the field and free the child.
Jacob resolves the situation in the simplest way possible- he shoots the child. The ninja spans away. We take down the field, and the girl’s cells aren’t decaying, for unknown reasons.
Suddenly, there’s a knife at Jacob’s throat, and a buzzing magnet against his back. He spans anyway, and domes the person in the head, a dangerous Narcissist operative called the Shadow. Reaming shows that the ninja has a memory that’s largely been wiped, leaving only her skills, so good for us. The child resurrects and spans out, but we recovered the vessel that let her resurrect, an old musket and musket ball. If you’re shot with the musket ball, it creates a ‘save state” for your body, that you can return to, and Machiavelli had it. Pretty cool stuff, it goes into cold storage.
Jacob spends like a year in recovery after this. There was a sidequest where Angelique asks us to pick up a loaf of wonderbread from the store, and we end up having to fight the staff of a Walmart, one at a time. Turns out, it’s a creature called a Dream Ghoul (named by the players) which was released by dreamsharing with the vessel. The ghoul possesses sleeping people, but we end up trapping the ghoul in a body and have it sent to cold storage, hopefully this time for good.
We get the bread to Angelique- resolving some frag that she had- and we’re not totally sure what to do. We consider tracking down the shadow, but we decide to do a little diversion- investigating the decades of the 21st century.
We jump into each decade, and we find that the Waffle House is eventually succeeded by another group, The Evils of War, who carried on our legacy of war crimes. Beau gets pyrokinesis around this time. In 2040, we met an early inventor of time travel, an Aquarian, who is being blackmailed by the president. The Continuum tasks us with stopping this, so we threaten the future president, Yevin (pronounced Kevin) Carlsbad into letting him go. Pyrokinesis is used horrifically for this. To prepare for future shenanigans, we pick up a super-pressure-resistant container that can become less resistant on command, and bring it to the past- fortunately, no nanotech, and we just keep it in the corner.
Jacob gets a bloodstained letter on special letterhead, but preempts the plot point by spanning there, writing the letter, getting blood on it, and sending it down in time. We were very nervous about the scorpiod kings, although I had a theory for beating them.
Instead, we visited Bart, since he did leave us with a bit of a loose end.
We found a bar, where dozens of geminis were all enjoying themselves with geminis of a woman, named Cassandra. He was very on edge to see us, but we talked to him for a while, and out of character I was glad that he had some good things happen to him in his life.
One of the geminis told us about a secret Order of the Hourglass base- the last one- which he’d give us the address to if we agreed not to visit a hospital room in a maternity ward at a specific date and time. We agreed. Jacob immediately contacted the Continuum, and went to the coordinates, which were for an island in a lake in Northern Canada.
We took the plane again, and Beau filled the container with water and then concentrated on it for the entire trip using pyrokinesis. The flight was long, and the temperature rose by 3600 degrees Celsius every hour. When we got to the island, we threw the container out the back, and switched it into “weak to pressure” mode, causing every building on the island to be flattened and all structures destroyed.
Mission complete, we returned to Cincinnati, and Bart was aghast to learn that, in fact, every time we went to one of those islands we really did a lot of murdering.
There was a brief intermission where we defused a problem in our yets. In the Shadow’s memories, we fought her and lost. So we talked to the thespians and they helped us fake losing the fight, in exchange for getting good footage of it to post on DreamHub (explained below).
Then, there was only one thing left to do. We showed up to the maternity ward. Bart wasn’t there, but his partner (or wife?) was, and the shadow showed up, and took away the newborn child. Beau briefly put the woman into hypothermic shock while we tried to fight the shadow, but she skedaddled, and so we decided to talk to Cassandra.
But as soon as she was unfrozen, she downed Beau (body of 2) instantly and hurt the rest of the party with a psychic screech. It was the first fight where we didn’t land the first hit,and it was brutal because of the quick penalties. She fled the room, and I decided to unveil my secret ace in the hole: the slipshank strategy. This instantly killed Cassandra, ending the fight, and we did a brief cleanup and took the time to rest before we tracked down the Shadow.
Clairvoyance let us find the Shadow’s span destination, and we tracked her for a while, until we found where she left the baby, at an orphanage.
We went there, and were going to take the baby, when Angelique showed up, working at the orphanage.
She explained that the baby was her, and she was forbidden from spanning while she was being retrained by the continuum. And she said that we actually missed the real plan of the Order of the Hourglass. She gave us a time and a place, and told us to come loaded for bear.
The group set up a particle accelerator for polonium manufacturing and got prepped. At this point, we were feeling pretty strong, so we weren’t worried. I also came up with a demented scheme to deal with Prisoner #5, since we knew we were going to fight him in the final battle, and that he was pretty strong.
There was another strange machine, and the Shadow, and Prisoner #5, in an abandoned railyard. When they saw us, the Shadow started working, and Prisoner #5 approached, but I activated my stupid bullshit plan to immediately resolve the Prisoner #5 problem: beaming a “factory reset” into his brain (this is something that’s indirectly established as possible in the GM section of the rulebook). This instantly took him out of the fight, although sadly didn’t turn him to our side.
In the meantime, the shadow activated the machine, and it began to pulse. Beau froze her brain, knocking her unconscious, but the machine was already active. We hit her with the fentanyl/polonium cocktail dart, for good measure. Another gemini showed up, and we did the same thing. We also tried destroying the machine, dropping rubble on it, whatever we could find.
Angelique was actually there for the fight- but she was occupied with fighting the gemini spear guy, and we were pretty glad that she was holding that down.
Unfortunately, the machine reached completion, shrinking down into a singularity and then exploding outwards.
There was a man with no eyes standing before us. The scorpiod king had arrived.
Now, this was the failstate of the campaign, but I think that we actually didn’t reach it naturally. I told the GM that I had a plan to defeat a scorpiod king, and he didn’t believe me.
So I executed the plan.
Now, in Continuum, spanning at ground zero of a nuclear explosion actually applies frag if you do it before the explosion, so it’s impossible to slipshank a nuclear explosion to your location if you’ve spanned. But the slipshank doesn’t have to be close.
In the 1960s, the United States government was big into nuclear weapons research, and one of their more interesting project was the Casaba-Howitzer directed nuclear weapon. There are details on Wikipedia, but basically, it’s a nuclear weapon that shoots an intense plasma beam in one direction. From what I’ve read, it was never built in real life. But Continuum establishes that there is a nuclear war in the future, and this weapon is considered technically plausible. We traveled to the future.
The plasma beam created by a Casaba-Howitzer nuclear device travels at nearly the speed of light. Therefore, it could be extremely close to you without you knowing. Scorpiod Kings have high stats. But not that high- No Eyes has a body of 15 and a quick of 25. The quick of 25 means that he goes ~2.5 times in each stage. That means that his reactions are fast. But not nanosecond fast.
A body of 15 is tough. But 9 IP is stated as the damage for a “LAW rocket to the face”. Compared to a gigantic pillar of plasma, reaching down from the heavens?
So, Jacob spent one frag, slipshanked a nuclear strike, and prayed for Inheritor intervention. It came. The party was transported into space, watching the enormous flash of light. The beam was relatively directed, but inheritor cleanup would be needed just for the satellites ruined alone.
Then, they were returned to Earth. But Jacob was presented with his own dead body, a piece of rebar forced through his chest.

Before you read this is pretty long but I would enjoy any help for my peace
This story is called the Shadows of Destiny
Pt.1
In a world shrouded in shadows and steeped in sorrow, where mysteries lurk in every corner and lies fester like open wounds, I find myself questioning the very nature of existence. As blood spills from my broken body, laughter echoes in the darkness, mocking the futility of worry. Missing limbs, punctured lungs this is the cruel price I pay as I draw my final breaths, all before my son's arrival. Thoughts of his mother and siblings flicker through my fading consciousness, overshadowed by the urgent need to pass on my legacy. But to whom?
With a final, rasping exhale, I release a strange energy into the void, a testament to the grim reality of our world. As the scene shifts to a grand estate, the cries of childbirth pierce the air, mingling with the anxious whispers of attendants. "Push, my lady, push!" I manage to utter, my voice feeble against the cacophony of pain. Yet, as the newborn emerges into the harsh light, a peculiar phenomenon unfolds.
"He's glowing!" cries out a bewildered voice, cutting through the tension like a knife. Panic grips the room, only to subside as quickly as it came. "It's alright, miss, the glow is fading," reassures another voice, as the newborn is swiftly attended to by the doctor.
As time passes, a mother's concern gnaws at her soul, sensing a darkness lurking beneath the surface. With each passing moment, the shadows grow deeper, casting doubt upon the purity of her son's lineage. And as the scene transitions to the child, Dakota, an ominous presence looms, whispering of secrets untold and destinies intertwined.
As the envious lady's sinister intentions unfolded, chaos erupted within the palace walls. With a swift motion, she reached for the array of materials, her hands trembling with anticipation. The air crackled with malevolent energy as she began to chant, her voice rising in a haunting melody.
But before she could complete her dark incantation, the door burst open, and Dakota's loyal guards stormed into the chamber, their swords drawn and ready for battle. The clash of steel echoed off the stone walls as they confronted the would-be assailant.
Sensing the threat to her son, Katherine rushed into the room, her heart pounding with fear and determination. "Stop her!" she cried out, her voice filled with desperation.
The envious lady's eyes blazed with fury as she faced off against the guards, her twisted smile betraying her malicious intent. With a flick of her wrist, she hurled a barrage of dark magic at her adversaries, each spell crackling with deadly power.
But the guards were prepared, their training honed through years of service to the crown. With precision and skill, they deflected the onslaught of dark energy, pressing forward with unwavering resolve.
In a final, desperate act, the envious lady unleashed a devastating curse, her voice dripping with venom as she invoked ancient powers of destruction. But before the curse could take hold, one of the guards leaped forward, his blade flashing in the dim light as he struck true.
The envious lady staggered back, her eyes widening in shock as the curse dissipated into nothingness. With a pained cry, she collapsed to the ground, defeated but not before uttering a chilling prophecy that echoed through the chamber.
As the guards rushed to secure the room, Katherine knelt beside her son, relief flooding her heart. Despite the danger that had threatened him, Dakota remained unharmed, a testament to the bravery and sacrifice of those who fought to protect him.
And as the echoes of battle faded into the silence of the night, Katherine held her son close, knowing that their journey was far from over, but that together, they would face whatever challenges lay ahead.
Certainly! Here's the revised ending to match the tone of the last part:
"Calm down, Dakota," Katherine cooed, her voice a soothing melody amidst the chaos. She gathered her crying son into her arms, his tiny form trembling with fear and exhaustion. "Mommy will protect you, always."
As Dakota's tears subsided, Katherine held him close, feeling the weight of responsibility settling upon her shoulders. She glanced around the room, her gaze lingering on the guards who stood watchful and vigilant, their swords still drawn in readiness.
With a determined resolve, Katherine knew that their ordeal was far from over. But in that moment, as she cradled her son against her chest, she vowed to do whatever it took to keep him safe from the darkness that lurked beyond the palace walls.
And as the first rays of dawn broke through the night sky, casting a warm glow upon their faces, Katherine whispered a silent prayer for strength and courage in the days to come. For she knew that their journey was just beginning, and that together, they would face whatever trials lay ahead, united in love and unwavering resolve.
Absolutely! Here's the revised section to match the tone of the last part:
As Katherine hurried around the house, her footsteps echoing in the empty halls, she felt a sense of urgency gnawing at her insides. She glanced over her shoulder, her heart pounding with each passing moment, as if expecting some unseen danger to leap out from the shadows.
Despite the reassurances from the guards and nurses that her son was unharmed, Katherine couldn't shake off the feeling of unease that lingered from the strange events surrounding Dakota's birth. The whispers of dark magic danced at the edge of her consciousness, a constant reminder of the peril that loomed over them.
Meanwhile, in a secluded chamber within the palace, a group of advisors and mystics gathered to discuss the recent events that had shaken the kingdom to its core. Their voices were hushed, their expressions grave, as they debated the best course of action to protect the young prince from the looming threat.
One of the mystics, an elderly woman with piercing eyes that seemed to see into the depths of the soul, spoke up, her voice trembling with urgency. "We must act swiftly to safeguard the prince's future. The curse that was cast upon him may lie dormant now, but it has the potential to unleash untold chaos if left unchecked."
The advisors nodded in agreement, their brows furrowed with concern. They knew that the fate of the kingdom hung in the balance, resting upon the fragile shoulders of a newborn child.
Back in the nursery, Katherine finally managed to calm Dakota, her arms enfolding him in a protective embrace. She pressed her lips to his forehead, whispering words of love and reassurance as she vowed to shield him from the darkness that threatened to consume their world.
And as she looked into her son's eyes, she saw a flicker of something ancient and wise, a spark of resilience that belied his tender years. In that moment, Katherine knew that Dakota's destiny was intricately woven with the fate of the kingdom itself, setting into motion a series of events that would shape the course of history for generations to come.
(Time passes and the scene in the castle has changed )
As the rebel forces stormed the palace, Queen Katherine, a formidable warrior born of both blood elf and high elf lineage, stood ready to defend her home with all the power at her command. With a graceful flourish of her sword and a whispered incantation, she unleashed her ice magic upon her foes, sending shards of frost flying through the air to freeze her enemies where they stood.
Her movements were a deadly dance, a symphony of swordplay and magic weaving together in perfect harmony as she fought to protect her family and her kingdom. With each strike of her blade and each blast of her magic, she carved a path of destruction through the ranks of the rebel forces, her determination unyielding in the face of overwhelming odds.
But even the combined might of her ice magic and her skill with a sword could not hold back the tide of rebellion forever. As the battle raged on, Queen Katherine found herself facing off against her own brother, the leader of the mercenary forces, in a duel to the death.
Their blades clashed with a resounding clang, each strike echoing with the weight of their shared history and the betrayal that had torn their family apart. With every movement, Queen Katherine called upon her blood elf agility and her high elf mastery of magic, weaving a deadly tapestry of ice and steel that left her brother reeling.
But her brother was a skilled warrior in his own right, and he matched her blow for blow, his determination fueled by years of resentment and bitterness. In the end, it was a cunning maneuver, a feint followed by a swift strike to her defenses, that allowed him to gain the upper hand.
As Queen Katherine staggered back, her strength waning and her magic faltering, she knew that she could not hold out much longer. With a heavy heart and tears in her eyes, she whispered a final incantation, summoning all the power of her bloodline to unleash a devastating blast of ice magic that engulfed her brother and the rebel forces in its icy grip.
But even as her magic faded and her sword fell from her grasp, Queen Katherine knew that her sacrifice would not be in vain. For in her final moments, she had bought precious time for her son, Dakota, to escape the palace and flee to safety, ensuring that the legacy of her bloodline would live on in him. And as she closed her eyes for the final time, Queen Katherine's spirit soared free, a warrior queen who had fought bravely to the very end.
As the chaos of battle raged on around them, Dakota and his elder brother Dean fought desperately to make their escape from the besieged palace. Together, they dodged arrows and blades, their hearts pounding with fear and adrenaline as they raced through the labyrinthine corridors, searching for a way out.
But their path to freedom was soon blocked by a group of rebel soldiers, their weapons drawn and their faces twisted with hatred. With nowhere left to run and their backs against the wall, Dakota and Dean found themselves facing an impossible choice: to fight or to flee.
In a desperate bid to buy his brother time to escape, Dean stepped forward to confront their attackers, his sword held high and his eyes blazing with defiance. But the odds were stacked against him, and despite his valiant efforts, he soon found himself outnumbered and outmatched.
With a cry of anguish, Dean was forced to abandon Dakota to his fate, his heart breaking as he watched his younger brother disappear into the chaos of battle. With tears in his eyes and a heavy heart, he whispered a silent prayer for Dakota's safety, knowing that he could not afford to stay and risk both their lives in a futile fight.
And as he turned and fled into the night, the echoes of battle ringing in his ears, Dean vowed to honor his brother's sacrifice by surviving to fight another day, for he knew that their journey was far from over and that the road ahead would be fraught with danger and despair. But no matter what trials awaited them, he swore to find a way to reunite with Dakota and to protect him at all costs, for blood may be thicker than water, but the bond of brotherhood was stronger still.
After Dean is forced to abandon Dakota, the young boy finds himself alone in the chaos of the battle-scarred palace. With tears streaming down his face and his heart pounding with fear, he stumbles through the labyrinthine corridors, desperately searching for a way to escape the carnage that surrounds him.
But at every turn, he is met with danger and uncertainty, as rebel soldiers and mercenaries clash in bloody combat. With each passing moment, Dakota's hope begins to wane, his fear threatening to overwhelm him as he struggles to find a path to safety.
Just when it seems that all is lost, a mysterious figure appears out of the shadows, offering Dakota a glimmer of hope in the darkness. It is a member of the palace guard, a loyal servant of the royal family who has managed to evade capture by the rebels.
With a sense of urgency, the guard leads Dakota through secret passageways and hidden tunnels, guiding him away from the heart of the battle and towards the safety of the palace's outer walls. Along the way, they encounter pockets of resistance, brave souls who have chosen to stand against the rebel forces in defense of their kingdom.
As they finally emerge into the cool night air, Dakota's heart swells with relief at the sight of the moonlit sky and the promise of freedom beyond the palace walls. With a final word of thanks to his rescuer, he sets off into the night, determined to find a way to survive in a world torn apart by war and betrayal.
And though the road ahead is fraught with danger and uncertainty, Dakota knows that he must remain strong and resilient, for his journey has only just begun, and the trials that lie ahead will test his courage, his strength, and his very will to survive. But no matter what challenges await him, he will face them head-on, for he carries within him the legacy of his family and the hope of a kingdom in need of a hero.
As Dakota boarded the small boat, he was handed a small, intricately carved ring by the mysterious stranger. With a sense of curiosity and apprehension, he slipped the ring onto his finger, noting its unusual weight and the faint, pulsing energy that seemed to emanate from it.
As the boat sailed into the dark waters beyond, Dakota's mind buzzed with questions about the stranger and their intentions. But before he could voice his concerns, a sudden wave of exhaustion washed over him, his eyelids growing heavy with weariness.
With a yawn, Dakota settled back against the boat's wooden hull, his thoughts drifting as the rhythmic sound of the oars against the water lulled him into a restless sleep. And as the boat sailed ever onward, deeper into the heart of the unknown, Dakota's dreams were filled with strange visions and cryptic whispers, hinting at the powerful destiny that awaited him.
When Dakota finally awoke, he found himself lying on the shore of Tear, the notorious den of criminals and outcasts stretching out before him. Confusion clouded his mind as he struggled to make sense of how he had come to be here, his memories of the journey hazy and disjointed.
With a groan, Dakota pushed himself upright, his head spinning with dizziness as he surveyed his surroundings. The air was thick with the stench of decay and desperation, and the distant sounds of chaos and violence echoed through the streets.
With a sinking feeling in the pit of his stomach, Dakota realized that he was far from the safety of home, trapped in a place of danger and despair with no one to turn to for help. And as he reached up to touch the ring on his finger, a sense of unease washed over him, a nagging feeling that there was more to this mysterious artifact than met the eye.
But for now, Dakota had more pressing concerns to contend with, as he struggled to find a way to survive in this harsh and unforgiving landscape. With a heavy heart and a wary eye, he set off into the heart of Tear, knowing that his journey was only just beginning and that the trials that lay ahead would test him in ways he could never have imagined.
Part .2
As Dakota traversed the grim streets of Tear, his appearance belied the latent power that simmered within him. Despite his frail frame and delicate features, there was an undeniable aura of potential that radiated from him, invisible to the naked eye but palpable to those attuned to the currents of magic.
Though he appeared fragile and feminine, Dakota's inner strength and resilience were like a beacon in the darkness, drawing the attention of those who recognized the untapped power that lay dormant within him. To the casual observer, he seemed like an unlikely candidate for greatness, but to those who possessed the gift of sight, Dakota was a force to be reckoned with, a sleeping giant waiting to be awakened.
Unaware of the potent energy that surrounded him, Dakota pressed forward on his journey, his determination unwavering despite the many obstacles that lay in his path. With each step he took, he unknowingly left a trail of whispered rumors and muttered prophecies in his wake, as those who sensed his hidden potential whispered of the extraordinary destiny that awaited him.
And though Dakota remained oblivious to the true extent of his power, there was a part of him that felt a stirring of something deep within his soul, a sense of purpose that called out to him in the quiet moments of reflection. It was as if he could sense the threads of fate weaving themselves around him, drawing him ever closer to his ultimate destiny.
But for now, Dakota remained focused on the task at hand, determined to unlock the secrets of his magic and fulfill whatever role awaited him in the tumultuous world of Tear. With each passing day, he grew stronger and more confident, his once-frail form imbued with a newfound sense of purpose and determination.
And though the road ahead was fraught with uncertainty, Dakota knew that he would not falter in the face of adversity. For he carried within him the potential to reshape the world, to wield his magic as a force for good in a world consumed by darkness. And as he embraced his destiny with open arms, Dakota knew that his journey was only just beginning, and that the true extent of his power had yet to be revealed.
As night descended upon the shadowy streets of Tear, whispers of Dakota's rumored destiny as the next Messiah echoed through the alleys and marketplaces, drawing the attention of both the hopeful and the desperate alike. But amidst the murmurs of prophecy, danger lurked in the shadows, unseen and unsuspected by the young boy who carried the weight of fate upon his fragile shoulders.
As Dakota wandered through the labyrinthine streets, lost in thought and unaware of the eyes that watched him from the darkness, a group of thugs lay in wait, their intentions dark and sinister. With greedy eyes and cruel smiles, they plotted to seize the boy and sell him into slavery on the black market, eager to profit from the chaos that engulfed the city.
But just as the thugs moved in to strike, a figure emerged from the shadows, his presence commanding and his eyes ablaze with power. Clad in dark robes and with long black hair cascading down his shoulders, the man exuded an aura of authority and strength that stopped the thugs dead in their tracks.
With a wave of his hand, the man unleashed a burst of magic that sent the thugs reeling, their weapons clattering to the ground as they stumbled backwards in shock and awe. Dakota watched in amazement as the man effortlessly dispatched his would-be captors, his heart pounding with a mixture of fear and fascination.
As the last of the thugs fled into the night, the man turned to Dakota, his expression unreadable beneath the hood of his cloak. "Are you alright, child?" he asked, his voice low and commanding.
Dakota nodded, still reeling from the sudden turn of events. "Y-yes," he stammered, his eyes wide with wonder. "Thank you... for saving me."
The man offered him a reassuring smile, his eyes twinkling with amusement. "It was nothing," he replied, his tone casual yet tinged with a hint of mystery. "But you should be more careful. There are many dangers lurking in the shadows of this city, and not all of them can be so easily avoided."
Dakota nodded, his mind racing with questions. Who was this mysterious stranger, and what secrets did he hold? As he gazed up at the man with a mixture of awe and curiosity, he knew that this encounter was just the beginning of a journey that would take him far beyond the confines of Tear, into a world of magic and mystery where anything was possible. And with the memory of the man's power burning bright in his mind, Dakota felt a newfound sense of purpose stirring within him, guiding him towards a destiny that was greater than he could ever have imagined.
As before the strange man could depart with Dakota, the boy would begin to faint as the man was as he would reach his hand out As their hands made contact, a surge of energy coursed through the mysterious man, sending a shiver down his spine. In that fleeting moment, his senses were overwhelmed by a vision unlike any he had experienced before.
Before him stood Dakota, bathed in an otherworldly glow that seemed to emanate from the very depths of his being. But as the man looked closer, he saw something else, something darker lurking beneath the surface.
It was as if Dakota were a creature of two worlds, a being caught between heaven and hell, his soul a battleground for forces beyond his control. There was a sense of raw power emanating from the boy, a primal energy that pulsed with an intensity that threatened to consume him whole.
But amidst the chaos and turmoil, there was also a glimmer of something else, something pure and untainted. It was the spark of humanity that lay buried deep within Dakota's soul, a flicker of light in the darkness that hinted at the possibility of redemption.
As the vision faded and Dakota slipped into unconsciousness, the man was left reeling, his mind grappling with the implications of what he had just witnessed. Could it be true? Was Dakota truly a being of such incredible power and potential?
With a heavy heart and a sense of foreboding, the man knew that their journey together would be fraught with peril and uncertainty. But he also knew that he could not turn away from his newfound responsibility, for Dakota's fate was now inexorably tied to his own, and together, they would face whatever challenges lay ahead, united in their quest for truth and redemption.
The mysterious man, cradling Dakota in his arms, carried him through the threshold of the sanctuary, where the air hummed with whispers of hope and whispers of fear. As he gently laid Dakota down amidst the group of children, a hushed murmur spread through the room. Eyes of varying ages and backgrounds turned toward the newcomer, curiosity mingling with skepticism in their expressions.
A woman, her features weathered by time and experience, stepped forward from the gathering. There was a sense of authority about her, tempered by warmth and understanding. She approached the man with a knowing look, her gaze lingering on Dakota before turning back to him.
"So, you bring another seed after saying you weren't gonna to," she remarked, her tone a mixture of amusement and reproach. There was a hint of a smile playing at the corners of her lips, as if she had anticipated this turn of events.
The man met her gaze with a mixture of resignation and determination. "I couldn't turn away from him," he replied quietly, his voice tinged with regret. "There's something... different about him."
The woman nodded, her expression softening with understanding. "We've seen many like him," she said cryptically, her words laden with unspoken meaning. "Children born of fire and ice, of light and shadow. They are the ones who will shape the future, for better or for worse."
With a gentle hand, she reached out to touch Dakota's forehead, her fingers brushing against his skin with a feather-light touch. There was a brief moment of connection, a silent exchange of understanding between them.
"Welcome, child," she said softly, her voice carrying a note of reassurance. "You may have found your way here by chance, but know that you are now part of something greater than yourself. Here, you will learn to harness your gifts, to embrace your true potential, and to find your place in the world."
And as Dakota drifted into a peaceful slumber, surrounded by strangers who would soon become his family, the man knew that he had made the right choice in bringing him here. For in this place of refuge and redemption, Dakota would find the guidance and support he needed to fulfill his destiny, whatever it may hold.
As Dakota lay sleeping, the man and woman stood watch over him, their voices hushed as they discussed the mysteries surrounding the young boy.
"He bears the mark of royalty," the woman mused, her eyes lingering on Dakota's dark purplish-pink hair. "Such a rare hue could only come from noble blood."
The man’s nodded thoughtfully, his gaze fixed on Dakota's peaceful form. "Indeed," he agreed. "But his lineage is shrouded in mystery. We cannot be certain of his true origins until he wakes and reveals more of himself to us."
The woman sighed, her brow furrowing with concern. "And what of his race?" she wondered aloud. "There are whispers among the children, rumors of his otherworldly nature. Could he be of elven descent, or perhaps something even more ancient and enigmatic?"
The man’s lips curved into a faint smile. "Time will tell," he replied cryptically. "For now, we must focus on nurturing his potential and guiding him on the path that lies ahead. Whatever his true identity may be, Dakota is destined for greatness, of that I am certain."
As they continued their conversation, Dakota stirred in his sleep, the faintest hint of a smile gracing his lips. And as he began to awaken, the air around him seemed to shimmer with possibility, as if the very fabric of destiny were weaving itself anew.
As Dakota's eyelids fluttered open, he found himself in an unfamiliar room bathed in soft candlelight. His head throbbed with a dull ache, and his limbs felt heavy and sluggish as if he had been asleep for an eternity. Confusion clouded his thoughts as he struggled to piece together what had happened.
As he glanced around the room, his eyes fell upon the figures of a man and a woman standing nearby, their expressions filled with concern. The man's features were gentle yet weathered, his eyes reflecting a depth of knowledge and experience. The woman exuded warmth and kindness, her eyes sparkling with a hint of mystery.
"Where am I?" Dakota murmured, his voice barely more than a whisper as he struggled to sit up.
The man, whom Dakota now recognized as Gabriel, approached him with a reassuring smile. "You're safe now, Dakota," he said softly, his voice soothing like a gentle breeze. "My name is Gabriel, and this is Elara. You were attacked, but we found you and brought you here to recover."
Dakota's brows furrowed in confusion as he tried to recall the events leading up to his unconsciousness. "Attacked?" he repeated, his voice trembling with uncertainty. "I don't remember..."
Gabriel nodded sympathetically, his eyes filled with understanding. "It's all right," he assured Dakota. "You suffered a blow to the head, and it's natural to feel disoriented. But you're among friends now, and we'll take care of you until you're fully recovered."
Elara stepped forward, her gentle hand resting on Dakota's shoulder in a comforting gesture. "You're in a place of refuge, Dakota," she explained softly. "A sanctuary for those in need of protection and guidance. You're welcome here, and we'll do everything we can to help you."
As Dakota took in their words, a sense of gratitude washed over him, mingled with a newfound determination to uncover the truth of what had happened to him. With Gabriel and Elara's guidance, he knew that he would find the strength to face whatever challenges lay ahead and to embrace the destiny that awaited him.

I am a stubborn person, often to a fault. I hate giving up, even if it might be a lost cause. My stubbornness is a problem, I know that. It leads me into situations where I know I should change course, but comfort and a sense of determination keep me from acting. I try to be rational and in cases where I am expected to believe the unbelievable, I have a hard time. Now I find myself in an impossible situation where I don't have a choice, I must acknowledge I am seeing what I am seeing, and I wish I wasn't, because I don't know what to do now.
Sorry, I keep getting distracted I hear the crashing and banging in the basement again, Lania must be at it again. She is always like that. I know I should say something but what choice do I have? I can't rock the boat. I need this house and her money so I will do what I always do and ignore those sounds coming from the basement, and the implications.
Maybe I will talk to her tomorrow, I think I have to because the muffled sounds sound a little too human to ignore. But let me tell you how I got to this point, and you can decide for yourself what you might do in this sort of circumstance.
It was about a year ago and I found myself in a position I had been working towards for a while. I was finally confident that I would be able to buy a home. The market is rough now and I have a good job. With the crazy prices though, I thought it was unattainable. Yet I had started looking all the same. I had contacted a real estate agent and had toured a few places. After a couple of months of no-good options, I started to lose hope but then I received a listing for the perfect house. My eyes lit up when I looked at the features and I was over the moon. The price seemed reasonable if a little high, but I was worried since I did not have much to put down and my credit was not the best. I was assured it was ok and after getting qualified for the first mortgage I applied for I finally signed on the dotted line and got the keys. I had done it and finally bought this place, my first home. I was so happy with the house, I loved it.
Yet even then I found myself asking could I really stay here? I wanted it to be my forever home, it is truly perfect. Yet I am terrified of the feeling of dread in the pit of my stomach, the creeping dread of pure evil. Yes, I was horrified......my interest rate was 9% on this house for a 30-year mortgage!
I know, right?
I was so obsessed with the idea of owning my own home that I did not realize how much my actual payments would be at that high an interest rate and I started to panic when I saw the huge cost. I figured I could maybe get a second job or try and get some overtime to compensate. I was just happy I had my house, that's all that mattered. The house was a gorgeous Victorian, over a century old but still in good shape. I was over the moon when I saw the place, it had everything I wanted, and I knew I would find a way to make the extreme cost work somehow.
I didn't have much to move in and knew I would have to buy furniture as I went, but that didn't bother me. Moving day was hard work as I moved what little I had all by myself. I took a break before the small U-Haul was fully unloaded to get a drink of water and tested the tap. I turned it on and was troubled after a long delay before anything came out, slowly a reddish liquid trickled and started to flow from the faucet, it had a thick viscosity and almost smelled like blood.
No, it couldn't be, must just be the pipes. I blinked and saw clear water flowing from the sink and brushed the crazy perception off. I returned back and forth several times as the afternoon drew on, carrying boxes and wishing I had called for some help moving after all. I paused admiring the floors and trying not to scrape them up too much with the boxes. The house had its original hardwood floor from the looks of it and I would be devastated if it was damaged. There was a sound of something crashing in the basement and I winced at the thought of whatever had been broken down there, a lot of old antique dishware was down there from the previous owners and though I was not likely to use it, I thought it might be valuable and I may even be able to sell it. Had I left something close to the shelves that fell and broke them? I went downstairs to check.
The basement door was hanging open, slowly swaying despite the fact I had been fairly sure I had closed it earlier. There was a foul smell emerging from the aperture as well and I was not sure what had happened down there. I went downstairs and saw It for the first time. I gasped aloud as I looked at what was down there. There was a puddle of dark liquid which might have been blood here as well, out of the corner of my eye I thought I saw an emaciated and skeletal body on the ground in the basement. I turned my head and it was no longer there, if it ever had been. I got closer to see what had happened and saw broken glass and figured maybe it was some sort of jar of old preserves or something. I stepped back and screamed when I heard a hiss and saw the body of a snake slither into a nearby crevice. Oh God, there are snakes in the basement? I didn't think they could just get into houses.
I hurried back upstairs to get the broom to sweep up the mess and maybe look up snake deterrents. I saw a strange-looking woman staring at me through the kitchen window. I blinked and her face was gone, and I started to doubt my senses again. After the first day and the weirdness in the basement, the normal day-to-day was good. But the good times wouldn't last, the worst news I could receive was just about to happen. I received a call informing me I was being laid off from my job. I had to scramble to find work and I was barely able to pay my exceedingly high mortgage. I could barely afford food and if something went wrong or needed repair, I would never be able to afford the fix. I realized I would need a roommate or something to help split the costs and make it more affordable until I could get another decent-paying job. That was the first time I met Lania.
Before I could even write up a request to advertise, I got a knock at my door. It was a tall pale skinned young woman with black hair and very serious eyes. The pupils seemed very narrow, almost akin to a cat or snake. She gave an air of authority and threat but also allure. She stared at me for a moment, and I started to feel uneasy before she finally spoke.
“I am here for the room.” She said very bluntly, almost as if it was a demand rather than a request. I hadn't even advertised it yet how did this lady know I needed a roommate?
“Well yes but how did you know already?” I asked, completely dumbfounded. She looked at me and then behind me into the house and produced an envelope with three thousand dollars in it.
“Holy smokes lady, I was going to ask for references, but this will do. That's more than what I was going to charge for the rent.” A glimmer of a smile appeared on the woman's face, and she spoke.
“Think of it as a security deposit.” I hate to say it but at the time I was ignoring the many red flags and just focusing on how a good-looking albeit kind of intense girl wanted to pay so much upfront to live with me. This plus my savings meant I had enough to pay the mortgage and then some. I was so happy I failed to see a lot of things and ask a lot of questions that should have been asked.
Lania moved in shockingly fast and made herself at home. We didn't see too much of each other because she worked a graveyard shift as a nurse or something she had said. I figured it must have been since I saw her in the early morning in blood-covered scrubs and figured it might be from the ER or something. She was a model roommate though, with no issues, very tidy, and always paid her portion of the bills not only on time but normally early. Weirdly it was always in cash, never with a check or something digital. But maybe she had an old heart and preferred paper currency. The only thing I did notice was she always kept dishes and silverware in her room and sometimes it left very little in the kitchen when I needed some. When I reminded her, she would bring it back. One time when I was loading the dishwasher I saw a few plates covered in a reddish sticky color that almost looked like blood. She must like rare steaks I figured.
At this point, I had secured a part-time retail job which was enough to pay a quarter of the mortgage and hardly any food. Surprisingly Lania was happy to pay for the rest and the utilities to boot. I didn't know how or why she was willing to help so much but I didn't want to look a gift horse in the mouth. One night I arrived home and found the door unlocked and it seemed like Lania was home, at least her car was there. I walked inside and heard something that sounded like muffled crying and then a shrill scream.
I raced to her room and barged in. I was not prepared for what I saw. I found her splayed out on her bed. She was naked and her face was covered with red paint or maybe blood? She was entwined with what looked like a large type of snake or python and it was writhing across her body. I was stunned by the sight I didn't even realize how my intrusion might be perceived until she screamed again and then turned to me as I entered, and she fixed her gaze on me, and I realized I made a mistake. I didn't know what was going on, but I took a step back and looked away as I retreated, realizing my eyes had been lingering on her bare chest. My cheeks reddened and I quickly blurted out an apologetic.
“Oh God I am sorry Lania; I didn't know what was going on and I thought you were in trouble.” Out of the corner of my eyes, I thought I saw her teeth take on an oddly pointed quality and her pupils shifted like they had the day I met her. Her initial surprise and anger calmed somewhat and despite the embarrassing situation I walked into she made no effort to cover herself and simply said.
“Please leave, now.” I didn't need to be told twice.
When I left, I realized I needed to grab the groceries I had bought and bring them inside. I went out to the garage again and near the laundry room, I saw what looked like an outfit for a delivery driver. It was torn up pretty badly. There was also a wallet near the washing machine that did not look like it belonged to Lania. I wondered if she had had someone over. I saw nearby a nametag that read “Ted” Maybe she was dating someone named Ted?
I didn't think much of it until the following week when I started to see missing person posters up around the neighborhood inquiring about any information regarding a "Theodore Wilkes" who had been declared missing. I thought of Lania and the weird behavior and the name tag, Ted short for Theodore? The implication was disturbing but there are a lot of Ted’s I figured. I also tried to put out of my mind the fact that he was a delivery driver.
One month later and still no luck with my job search, worse my hours were cut for my retail job. I was getting frustrated and feeling hopeless. I was only financially stable thanks to Lania, who continued, seemingly without objections, to pay almost all the bills. She was always nice to me when we did interact, besides the accidental walk in she never seemed hostile or dangerous. Yet so many other things concerned me, I didn't know if she was just eccentric or what. The snake thing was weird though, as well as finding that name tag, something was going on that she was not telling me.
I was up late into the night looking for job listening's when I heard Lania in the basement again. I did not know she was back yet, she said she normally worked nights, but it was only 10:30 pm. I figured she would be at work still. The sound was louder than normal, and I heard strange music being played at an incredibly loud volume. I wouldn't mind if it was earlier but I was about to try and get some sleep so I decided to check on her. Frustratingly she rarely kept a cell phone on hand otherwise I would just have texted her to respectfully keep it down. I realized with creeping dread I would have to go down there and ask her to quiet down.
I considered trying to ignore it but it got louder somehow and there was a sound of shrieking or moaning from what sounded like another woman. I didn't know what was going on but I hadn't wanted to get involved. I lay on my bed with my pillow over my head trying to ignore the sound until I heard an awful scream that sounded like someone was in trouble. I raced out of my room downstairs and to the basement door. I summoned my courage and knocked loudly on the door several times, shouting.
“Is everything okay in there?” There was a long pause with no sound other than the blaring music. I was about to knock again when the music was shut off and I heard shuffling and the loud crash of something heavy being dropped on the ground. The sound of the door unlocked was promptly followed by Lania stepping outside and fixing me with a placating smile and a sheepish, yet definitely feigned ignorant response.
“Yes, what’s up?” I was slightly annoyed by the gaslighting and tried my best not to be too combative in my response since I still felt like I couldn't endanger our dynamic in a way that might make her move out.
“Um Lania, with respect what was that sound just now? It sounded like someone was hurt, are you okay? And if everything is alright, could we please keep the music down at night? I know you are on a nocturnal schedule, but I am not.” I immediately looked at her reaction to see if I had overstepped but she just kept smiling and insisted.
“Everything is fine, I saw a huge spider and got startled. I am working on another art project in here and I get carried away. The music helps me channel my creativity, I will keep it to a dull roar for you in the future. I’m sorry.” She seemed to wink at the last statement and I was unsettled but didn't want to press the subject so I agreed and thanked her for understanding and went back to my room. It was an obvious lie but what was I going to do about it? I hoped I would find a better job soon and start being able to save enough to cover costs myself. Or maybe get a slightly less eccentric roommate who I could trust was not doing God knows what in the basement in the middle of the night.
The final and most recent event occurred two weeks ago. I had grown desensitized to most of the bizarre behavior of Lania as she continued to pay her bills on time and keep to her own affairs. But a simple household chore led me to see something that I can never unsee and added an entirely dangerous level of uncertainty about my roommate and her real nature.
I was going about my day-to-day business at home, another day off since my hours were terrible at the store I was barely working twenty hours a week. I had grown despondent at continuing to look for job options after so long searching with no results or positive encouragement. I decided I would busy myself with household chores. I was cleaning up a few things when I heard a loud beeping. I wondered what it could be and then realized it was the low battery signal for the carbon monoxide detector. It sounded like it was coming from the device in Lania's room. I changed the battery on mine a month earlier but realized I never changed hers and the battery was running low apparently.
It was midday and I thought she might be asleep I grabbed a couple of double A batteries and set them near her door so I wouldn't have to go in and change them. After almost an hour she did not emerge from the room and the beeping continued. It was a very loud chirp and regardless of replacing them or not I wanted to at least stop the thing from making that racket, so I made the mistake of going into Lania’s room for the first time since the incident I walked in on her. I knew it was a bad idea but I slowly approached the door and knocked several times. No response was forthcoming so I knocked again and nervously called out.
“Lania, are you here?” Still no response. I called out louder than before.
“Come on Lania, you don't hear that sound? That's the carbon monoxide detector, it will keep doing that unless we change the battery. I have them right here, please change them or I can if you will let me in real quick.” Once again, silence was all that responded. I tried the door and to my surprise, it was unlocked.
The room was very dark, the windows had been covered up with blackout curtains or something. I turned on my phone's flashlight and shinned it briefly on the bed to check. It was empty. I looked up and saw in the corner of the room the blinking detector and the target of my uninvited intrusion into her room. I stepped forward and promptly tripped on something. It was a large duffel bag that was partially open. I knew I shouldn't but I couldn't suppress the urge to investigate so I shinned my light on it and was confused when I saw a large assortment of nametags, wallets, engraved jewelry, and various charms or mementos all of which bore different names, none seemed to actually say Lania. I also saw that "Ted" nametag again in here with the assortment of other named items.
I was deeply disturbed by the implications of this grab bag of others' personal effects and did not like any of the scenarios it implied. I took a step back and almost jumped out of my skin when I heard a hiss and the striking of a glass wall and saw a row of terrariums that contained several large snakes. I knew she must have had one from before but I didn't know she had this many, they seemed oddly perturbed and upset by my presence and the one who made the sound had attacked the glass to try and reach me. I shuddered when I considered they might be venomous.
I tried to catch my breath when my blood froze as I stood there hearing with distinct certainty a moving sound coming from the attached bathroom. It sounded like an enormous slithering sound like that of a snake but far too large. I crept closer to the bathroom and heard a sickening crunching sound like bone being snapped in half. My heart was hammering in my chest and I couldn't move but I saw a large shadow looming near the other side of the bathroom door. I covered my mouth and tried to slowly back out of the room. Suddenly the door handle began to turn, and I fell back into the dark corner of the room.
The door didn't open just then for whatever reason the figure on the other side continued to slide around in the bathroom and another savage crunch was heard. I let out a controlled raspy gasp, to not make too much noise, and I pressed my hands against the wall to steady myself. As I touched the wall, I felt something gross and sticky. I managed to sit upright and slowly step away from the wall, trying to be as quiet as I could. I gently reached back into my pocket to get my phone and turned to face the corner of the wall I had just been pressed up against. Once the light shone on the scene, I felt like I was going to be sick. The corner held an array of large bundles of meat still slicked with gore and wrapped in a large bundle of butcher's twine. I did not like the shape of the thing at all. The proportions were very large, but not so large as to be bovine or deer, some seemed to be disturbingly suggestive in length and general outline to that of the human anatomy. I didn't know if the light was playing tricks on me but I could have sworn I saw the outline of an entire human-sized femur in a partially flensed chunk of meat.
I turned away in disgust at the smell and general horror of the scene and quickly crept towards the door. The handle once again jostled on the bathroom door and this time it did start to open. I flung myself forward onto the ground and crawled under the bed. I held my breath but almost let out a gasp as I saw what appeared to be a partially eaten human head under the bed near where I was hiding. I held both hands over my mouth and closed my eyes as I heard the terrible dragging sound of the titanic serpentine body slithering over the floor.
I almost screamed aloud when after a pause a scaled hand reached underneath the bed and groped for something near where I was. It reached for a moment and then grasped the half-eaten head and pulled it out. I couldn't move, couldn't breathe I simply waited in terrified suspense as I heard awful crunching and tearing sounds and the sucking guttural consumption of the morbid meal from a creature not fully used to chewing its food. I also saw under there when I opened my eyes again, the discarded dishes from my dining set, caked in what looked alarmingly like dried blood. I lost track of the exact time I spent in that nightmare room, listening to the thing finish its morbid meal. Then somehow the slithering about the room stopped and I heard the soft padding of human feet and a sudden pressure on the bed above me as of someone sitting down. Daring to set my eyes ahead and look out slightly I saw two normal-looking womans feet and I heard a soft sing-song humming of a song as a figure bent down and put shoes on and walked forward and from the sounds of the door had departed the room.
I let out a loud exhale of exhausted fear and I fought the dueling urges to either cower under here for a bit longer or rush out of this nightmare room in a blind frenzied panic, regardless of how close its horrifying occupant might still be. I tried to calm myself down and eventually after what may have been two or 3 minutes I pulled myself from under the bed and rushed out of the room. I whirled back to close the door to Lania’s room and as the door clicked and my hand was still on the door I heard a voice call out.
“Is there something you need in my room?” I froze in place, terrified of turning around for fear of what I might see. I managed to spin my petrified body around and I saw Lania, no monster just Lania she was fully dressed no blood was covering her body, and no snakes writhed about. I stood there staring dumbly before her, stammering for an answer. Her eyes narrowed at my reaction and I realized I needed to say something.
“I, um I” I looked at the batteries still sitting by her door.
“I needed to change the batteries on your carbon monoxide detector.” Almost on queue, the shrill beep was heard again to accentuate my point and give me what was at first a genuine answer to her question. She looked on incredulous but seemed to soften as she winced when she heard the shrill beep again, seemingly noticing now that I had pointed it out.
“Alright I can see how that might be annoying, I am sorry please allow me.” She brushed past me back into her room and after a minute the beeping was gone. She came back out and smiled at me.
“Oh, I almost forgot here.” She handed me an envelope. It contained an assortment of bills many of which were stained with a disturbing dark brown color. In total, it looked to be close to four thousand dollars.
“For rent and consider the rest extra for the batteries.” She winked at me and brushed past me and I stood there dumbfounded as I heard the front door open and close and a car leaving shortly thereafter.
I have no idea what just happened or if what I experienced was real or a nightmare. I know now what I fear is likely the truth, but what did I really see? Whatever Lania is doing or indeed whatever she might truly be I do not know. But I do know that besides the mess and the eccentricities she pays her bills on time.
The awful nightmare of a serpentine woman hybrid who preys on men is damnably suggestive of the story of the demonic Lamia. I considered her name too Lania? No, just a coincidence I’m sure like that Ted who went missing. Maybe I will ask her about it later, but for now, I think I should deposit this money into my account and start a savings account. Perhaps I can afford to ask her to leave a little bit later, yes I think that would be the safer option.
Demons can't be real right? But homelessness sure is and I mean I am just being paranoid right?

I am a stubborn person, often to a fault. I hate giving up, even if it might be a lost cause. My stubbornness is a problem, I know that. It leads me into situations where I know I should change course, but comfort and a sense of determination keep me from acting. I try to be rational and in cases where I am expected to believe the unbelievable, I have a hard time. Now I find myself in an impossible situation where I don't have a choice, I must acknowledge I am seeing what I am seeing, and I wish I wasn't, because I don't know what to do now.
Sorry, I keep getting distracted I hear the crashing and banging in the basement again, Lania must be at it again. She is always like that. I know I should say something but what choice do I have? I can't rock the boat. I need this house and her money so I will do what I always do and ignore those sounds coming from the basement, and the implications.
Maybe I will talk to her tomorrow, I think I have to because the muffled sounds sound a little too human to ignore. But let me tell you how I got to this point, and you can decide for yourself what you might do in this sort of circumstance.
It was about a year ago and I found myself in a position I had been working towards for a while. I was finally confident that I would be able to buy a home. The market is rough now and I have a good job. With the crazy prices though, I thought it was unattainable. Yet I had started looking all the same. I had contacted a real estate agent and had toured a few places. After a couple of months of no-good options, I started to lose hope but then I received a listing for the perfect house. My eyes lit up when I looked at the features and I was over the moon. The price seemed reasonable if a little high, but I was worried since I did not have much to put down and my credit was not the best. I was assured it was ok and after getting qualified for the first mortgage I applied for I finally signed on the dotted line and got the keys. I had done it and finally bought this place, my first home. I was so happy with the house, I loved it.
Yet even then I found myself asking could I really stay here? I wanted it to be my forever home, it is truly perfect. Yet I am terrified of the feeling of dread in the pit of my stomach, the creeping dread of pure evil. Yes, I was horrified......my interest rate was 9% on this house for a 30-year mortgage!
I know, right?
I was so obsessed with the idea of owning my own home that I did not realize how much my actual payments would be at that high an interest rate and I started to panic when I saw the huge cost. I figured I could maybe get a second job or try and get some overtime to compensate. I was just happy I had my house, that's all that mattered. The house was a gorgeous Victorian, over a century old but still in good shape. I was over the moon when I saw the place, it had everything I wanted, and I knew I would find a way to make the extreme cost work somehow.
I didn't have much to move in and knew I would have to buy furniture as I went, but that didn't bother me. Moving day was hard work as I moved what little I had all by myself. I took a break before the small U-Haul was fully unloaded to get a drink of water and tested the tap. I turned it on and was troubled after a long delay before anything came out, slowly a reddish liquid trickled and started to flow from the faucet, it had a thick viscosity and almost smelled like blood.
No, it couldn't be, must just be the pipes. I blinked and saw clear water flowing from the sink and brushed the crazy perception off. I returned back and forth several times as the afternoon drew on, carrying boxes and wishing I had called for some help moving after all. I paused admiring the floors and trying not to scrape them up too much with the boxes. The house had its original hardwood floor from the looks of it and I would be devastated if it was damaged. There was a sound of something crashing in the basement and I winced at the thought of whatever had been broken down there, a lot of old antique dishware was down there from the previous owners and though I was not likely to use it, I thought it might be valuable and I may even be able to sell it. Had I left something close to the shelves that fell and broke them? I went downstairs to check.
The basement door was hanging open, slowly swaying despite the fact I had been fairly sure I had closed it earlier. There was a foul smell emerging from the aperture as well and I was not sure what had happened down there. I went downstairs and saw It for the first time. I gasped aloud as I looked at what was down there. There was a puddle of dark liquid which might have been blood here as well, out of the corner of my eye I thought I saw an emaciated and skeletal body on the ground in the basement. I turned my head and it was no longer there, if it ever had been. I got closer to see what had happened and saw broken glass and figured maybe it was some sort of jar of old preserves or something. I stepped back and screamed when I heard a hiss and saw the body of a snake slither into a nearby crevice. Oh God, there are snakes in the basement? I didn't think they could just get into houses.
I hurried back upstairs to get the broom to sweep up the mess and maybe look up snake deterrents. I saw a strange-looking woman staring at me through the kitchen window. I blinked and her face was gone, and I started to doubt my senses again. After the first day and the weirdness in the basement, the normal day-to-day was good. But the good times wouldn't last, the worst news I could receive was just about to happen. I received a call informing me I was being laid off from my job. I had to scramble to find work and I was barely able to pay my exceedingly high mortgage. I could barely afford food and if something went wrong or needed repair, I would never be able to afford the fix. I realized I would need a roommate or something to help split the costs and make it more affordable until I could get another decent-paying job. That was the first time I met Lania.
Before I could even write up a request to advertise, I got a knock at my door. It was a tall pale skinned young woman with black hair and very serious eyes. The pupils seemed very narrow, almost akin to a cat or snake. She gave an air of authority and threat but also allure. She stared at me for a moment, and I started to feel uneasy before she finally spoke.
“I am here for the room.” She said very bluntly, almost as if it was a demand rather than a request. I hadn't even advertised it yet how did this lady know I needed a roommate?
“Well yes but how did you know already?” I asked, completely dumbfounded. She looked at me and then behind me into the house and produced an envelope with three thousand dollars in it.
“Holy smokes lady, I was going to ask for references, but this will do. That's more than what I was going to charge for the rent.” A glimmer of a smile appeared on the woman's face, and she spoke.
“Think of it as a security deposit.” I hate to say it but at the time I was ignoring the many red flags and just focusing on how a good-looking albeit kind of intense girl wanted to pay so much upfront to live with me. This plus my savings meant I had enough to pay the mortgage and then some. I was so happy I failed to see a lot of things and ask a lot of questions that should have been asked.
Lania moved in shockingly fast and made herself at home. We didn't see too much of each other because she worked a graveyard shift as a nurse or something she had said. I figured it must have been since I saw her in the early morning in blood-covered scrubs and figured it might be from the ER or something. She was a model roommate though, with no issues, very tidy, and always paid her portion of the bills not only on time but normally early. Weirdly it was always in cash, never with a check or something digital. But maybe she had an old heart and preferred paper currency. The only thing I did notice was she always kept dishes and silverware in her room and sometimes it left very little in the kitchen when I needed some. When I reminded her, she would bring it back. One time when I was loading the dishwasher I saw a few plates covered in a reddish sticky color that almost looked like blood. She must like rare steaks I figured.
At this point, I had secured a part-time retail job which was enough to pay a quarter of the mortgage and hardly any food. Surprisingly Lania was happy to pay for the rest and the utilities to boot. I didn't know how or why she was willing to help so much but I didn't want to look a gift horse in the mouth. One night I arrived home and found the door unlocked and it seemed like Lania was home, at least her car was there. I walked inside and heard something that sounded like muffled crying and then a shrill scream.
I raced to her room and barged in. I was not prepared for what I saw. I found her splayed out on her bed. She was naked and her face was covered with red paint or maybe blood? She was entwined with what looked like a large type of snake or python and it was writhing across her body. I was stunned by the sight I didn't even realize how my intrusion might be perceived until she screamed again and then turned to me as I entered, and she fixed her gaze on me, and I realized I made a mistake. I didn't know what was going on, but I took a step back and looked away as I retreated, realizing my eyes had been lingering on her bare chest. My cheeks reddened and I quickly blurted out an apologetic.
“Oh God I am sorry Lania; I didn't know what was going on and I thought you were in trouble.” Out of the corner of my eyes, I thought I saw her teeth take on an oddly pointed quality and her pupils shifted like they had the day I met her. Her initial surprise and anger calmed somewhat and despite the embarrassing situation I walked into she made no effort to cover herself and simply said.
“Please leave, now.” I didn't need to be told twice.
When I left, I realized I needed to grab the groceries I had bought and bring them inside. I went out to the garage again and near the laundry room, I saw what looked like an outfit for a delivery driver. It was torn up pretty badly. There was also a wallet near the washing machine that did not look like it belonged to Lania. I wondered if she had had someone over. I saw nearby a nametag that read “Ted” Maybe she was dating someone named Ted?
I didn't think much of it until the following week when I started to see missing person posters up around the neighborhood inquiring about any information regarding a "Theodore Wilkes" who had been declared missing. I thought of Lania and the weird behavior and the name tag, Ted short for Theodore? The implication was disturbing but there are a lot of Ted’s I figured. I also tried to put out of my mind the fact that he was a delivery driver.
One month later and still no luck with my job search, worse my hours were cut for my retail job. I was getting frustrated and feeling hopeless. I was only financially stable thanks to Lania, who continued, seemingly without objections, to pay almost all the bills. She was always nice to me when we did interact, besides the accidental walk in she never seemed hostile or dangerous. Yet so many other things concerned me, I didn't know if she was just eccentric or what. The snake thing was weird though, as well as finding that name tag, something was going on that she was not telling me.
I was up late into the night looking for job listening's when I heard Lania in the basement again. I did not know she was back yet, she said she normally worked nights, but it was only 10:30 pm. I figured she would be at work still. The sound was louder than normal, and I heard strange music being played at an incredibly loud volume. I wouldn't mind if it was earlier but I was about to try and get some sleep so I decided to check on her. Frustratingly she rarely kept a cell phone on hand otherwise I would just have texted her to respectfully keep it down. I realized with creeping dread I would have to go down there and ask her to quiet down.
I considered trying to ignore it but it got louder somehow and there was a sound of shrieking or moaning from what sounded like another woman. I didn't know what was going on but I hadn't wanted to get involved. I lay on my bed with my pillow over my head trying to ignore the sound until I heard an awful scream that sounded like someone was in trouble. I raced out of my room downstairs and to the basement door. I summoned my courage and knocked loudly on the door several times, shouting.
“Is everything okay in there?” There was a long pause with no sound other than the blaring music. I was about to knock again when the music was shut off and I heard shuffling and the loud crash of something heavy being dropped on the ground. The sound of the door unlocked was promptly followed by Lania stepping outside and fixing me with a placating smile and a sheepish, yet definitely feigned ignorant response.
“Yes, what’s up?” I was slightly annoyed by the gaslighting and tried my best not to be too combative in my response since I still felt like I couldn't endanger our dynamic in a way that might make her move out.
“Um Lania, with respect what was that sound just now? It sounded like someone was hurt, are you okay? And if everything is alright, could we please keep the music down at night? I know you are on a nocturnal schedule, but I am not.” I immediately looked at her reaction to see if I had overstepped but she just kept smiling and insisted.
“Everything is fine, I saw a huge spider and got startled. I am working on another art project in here and I get carried away. The music helps me channel my creativity, I will keep it to a dull roar for you in the future. I’m sorry.” She seemed to wink at the last statement and I was unsettled but didn't want to press the subject so I agreed and thanked her for understanding and went back to my room. It was an obvious lie but what was I going to do about it? I hoped I would find a better job soon and start being able to save enough to cover costs myself. Or maybe get a slightly less eccentric roommate who I could trust was not doing God knows what in the basement in the middle of the night.
The final and most recent event occurred two weeks ago. I had grown desensitized to most of the bizarre behavior of Lania as she continued to pay her bills on time and keep to her own affairs. But a simple household chore led me to see something that I can never unsee and added an entirely dangerous level of uncertainty about my roommate and her real nature.
I was going about my day-to-day business at home, another day off since my hours were terrible at the store I was barely working twenty hours a week. I had grown despondent at continuing to look for job options after so long searching with no results or positive encouragement. I decided I would busy myself with household chores. I was cleaning up a few things when I heard a loud beeping. I wondered what it could be and then realized it was the low battery signal for the carbon monoxide detector. It sounded like it was coming from the device in Lania's room. I changed the battery on mine a month earlier but realized I never changed hers and the battery was running low apparently.
It was midday and I thought she might be asleep I grabbed a couple of double A batteries and set them near her door so I wouldn't have to go in and change them. After almost an hour she did not emerge from the room and the beeping continued. It was a very loud chirp and regardless of replacing them or not I wanted to at least stop the thing from making that racket, so I made the mistake of going into Lania’s room for the first time since the incident I walked in on her. I knew it was a bad idea but I slowly approached the door and knocked several times. No response was forthcoming so I knocked again and nervously called out.
“Lania, are you here?” Still no response. I called out louder than before.
“Come on Lania, you don't hear that sound? That's the carbon monoxide detector, it will keep doing that unless we change the battery. I have them right here, please change them or I can if you will let me in real quick.” Once again, silence was all that responded. I tried the door and to my surprise, it was unlocked.
The room was very dark, the windows had been covered up with blackout curtains or something. I turned on my phone's flashlight and shinned it briefly on the bed to check. It was empty. I looked up and saw in the corner of the room the blinking detector and the target of my uninvited intrusion into her room. I stepped forward and promptly tripped on something. It was a large duffel bag that was partially open. I knew I shouldn't but I couldn't suppress the urge to investigate so I shinned my light on it and was confused when I saw a large assortment of nametags, wallets, engraved jewelry, and various charms or mementos all of which bore different names, none seemed to actually say Lania. I also saw that "Ted" nametag again in here with the assortment of other named items.
I was deeply disturbed by the implications of this grab bag of others' personal effects and did not like any of the scenarios it implied. I took a step back and almost jumped out of my skin when I heard a hiss and the striking of a glass wall and saw a row of terrariums that contained several large snakes. I knew she must have had one from before but I didn't know she had this many, they seemed oddly perturbed and upset by my presence and the one who made the sound had attacked the glass to try and reach me. I shuddered when I considered they might be venomous.
I tried to catch my breath when my blood froze as I stood there hearing with distinct certainty a moving sound coming from the attached bathroom. It sounded like an enormous slithering sound like that of a snake but far too large. I crept closer to the bathroom and heard a sickening crunching sound like bone being snapped in half. My heart was hammering in my chest and I couldn't move but I saw a large shadow looming near the other side of the bathroom door. I covered my mouth and tried to slowly back out of the room. Suddenly the door handle began to turn, and I fell back into the dark corner of the room.
The door didn't open just then for whatever reason the figure on the other side continued to slide around in the bathroom and another savage crunch was heard. I let out a controlled raspy gasp, to not make too much noise, and I pressed my hands against the wall to steady myself. As I touched the wall, I felt something gross and sticky. I managed to sit upright and slowly step away from the wall, trying to be as quiet as I could. I gently reached back into my pocket to get my phone and turned to face the corner of the wall I had just been pressed up against. Once the light shone on the scene, I felt like I was going to be sick. The corner held an array of large bundles of meat still slicked with gore and wrapped in a large bundle of butcher's twine. I did not like the shape of the thing at all. The proportions were very large, but not so large as to be bovine or deer, some seemed to be disturbingly suggestive in length and general outline to that of the human anatomy. I didn't know if the light was playing tricks on me but I could have sworn I saw the outline of an entire human-sized femur in a partially flensed chunk of meat.
I turned away in disgust at the smell and general horror of the scene and quickly crept towards the door. The handle once again jostled on the bathroom door and this time it did start to open. I flung myself forward onto the ground and crawled under the bed. I held my breath but almost let out a gasp as I saw what appeared to be a partially eaten human head under the bed near where I was hiding. I held both hands over my mouth and closed my eyes as I heard the terrible dragging sound of the titanic serpentine body slithering over the floor.
I almost screamed aloud when after a pause a scaled hand reached underneath the bed and groped for something near where I was. It reached for a moment and then grasped the half-eaten head and pulled it out. I couldn't move, couldn't breathe I simply waited in terrified suspense as I heard awful crunching and tearing sounds and the sucking guttural consumption of the morbid meal from a creature not fully used to chewing its food. I also saw under there when I opened my eyes again, the discarded dishes from my dining set, caked in what looked alarmingly like dried blood. I lost track of the exact time I spent in that nightmare room, listening to the thing finish its morbid meal. Then somehow the slithering about the room stopped and I heard the soft padding of human feet and a sudden pressure on the bed above me as of someone sitting down. Daring to set my eyes ahead and look out slightly I saw two normal-looking womans feet and I heard a soft sing-song humming of a song as a figure bent down and put shoes on and walked forward and from the sounds of the door had departed the room.
I let out a loud exhale of exhausted fear and I fought the dueling urges to either cower under here for a bit longer or rush out of this nightmare room in a blind frenzied panic, regardless of how close its horrifying occupant might still be. I tried to calm myself down and eventually after what may have been two or 3 minutes I pulled myself from under the bed and rushed out of the room. I whirled back to close the door to Lania’s room and as the door clicked and my hand was still on the door I heard a voice call out.
“Is there something you need in my room?” I froze in place, terrified of turning around for fear of what I might see. I managed to spin my petrified body around and I saw Lania, no monster just Lania she was fully dressed no blood was covering her body, and no snakes writhed about. I stood there staring dumbly before her, stammering for an answer. Her eyes narrowed at my reaction and I realized I needed to say something.
“I, um I” I looked at the batteries still sitting by her door.
“I needed to change the batteries on your carbon monoxide detector.” Almost on queue, the shrill beep was heard again to accentuate my point and give me what was at first a genuine answer to her question. She looked on incredulous but seemed to soften as she winced when she heard the shrill beep again, seemingly noticing now that I had pointed it out.
“Alright I can see how that might be annoying, I am sorry please allow me.” She brushed past me back into her room and after a minute the beeping was gone. She came back out and smiled at me.
“Oh, I almost forgot here.” She handed me an envelope. It contained an assortment of bills many of which were stained with a disturbing dark brown color. In total, it looked to be close to four thousand dollars.
“For rent and consider the rest extra for the batteries.” She winked at me and brushed past me and I stood there dumbfounded as I heard the front door open and close and a car leaving shortly thereafter.
I have no idea what just happened or if what I experienced was real or a nightmare. I know now what I fear is likely the truth, but what did I really see? Whatever Lania is doing or indeed whatever she might truly be I do not know. But I do know that besides the mess and the eccentricities she pays her bills on time.
The awful nightmare of a serpentine woman hybrid who preys on men is damnably suggestive of the story of the demonic Lamia. I considered her name too Lania? No, just a coincidence I’m sure like that Ted who went missing. Maybe I will ask her about it later, but for now, I think I should deposit this money into my account and start a savings account. Perhaps I can afford to ask her to leave a little bit later, yes I think that would be the safer option.
Demons can't be real right? But homelessness sure is and I mean I am just being paranoid right?